Service Tax Refund to exporters through Customs EDI System
AS per the promise made by the Finance Minister in his Budget speech, the Government proposes to introduce a simplified scheme for electronic refund of service tax to exporters, on the lines of duty drawback. This Scheme is optional. The exporter can either claim the electronic refund through ICES or claim it with documents from Central Excise/Service Tax offices.
In the electronic refund scheme, which is based on a schedule of rates to be notified soon, an exporter
(i) should have a bank account and also a central excise registration or service tax code number and the same should be registered with Customs ICES 1.5 using ‘Annexure –A' Form;
(ii) should declare his option to avail STR (Service Tax Refund) on the electronic shipping bill while presenting the same to the proper officer of Customs.
STR amount processed under the ICES will be disbursed through the branch of the authorized bank at each Customs location. The STR amount in respect of individual exporters will be credited directly to the bank account of the exporter, in the authorized bank branch at a Custom location or to any core banking enabled banking account of the exporter, in any branch/bank anywhere in the country (through the NEFT/RTGS).
The Board wants its various officers to urgently take the following steps: -
++ Chief Commissioners/ Commissioners to cause wide publicity to the new electronic STR scheme among exporters.
++ Custom Houses should make special arrangements to verify the Annexure–A forms from the exporters.
++ Systems Managers should make necessary arrangements to verify the Annexure –A forms and upload the details in the ICES.
Let us hope the system would work and the exporters would actually get the refund. Why can't it be made mandatory for the Customs officer to ask the exporter at the time of filing the export documents, “do you want to claim refund of service tax?” The Central Excise officers who make it their avowed goal in life to reject all refunds, if possible, should learn a lesson from this. Technology will take over and will not tolerate your incompetence and delays.
Circular No. Dated: December 16, 2011