E-payment of Customs Duty; Why not Interest?
IN Circular No. dated 29.07.2011, CBEC had informed that in order to reduce the transaction cost of the importers and expedite the time taken for customs clearance, the Board has decided to make e-payment of duty mandatory for the importers paying an amount of Rupees one lakh or more per transaction. Additionally, for Accredited Clients under the Customs Accredited Client Programme irrespective of any amount of duty, the Customs duty will have to be paid through E- payment mode only. The date from which the E- payment will be made mandatory will be notified separately.
The Finance Act 2012 amended Section 47 (2) of the Customs Act to stipulate that, "Provided that the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify the class or classes of importers who shall pay such duty electronically”.
In Circular No. 24/2012 dated 05 09 2012 [Please see dated 06 09 2012], Board had informed that it had made e-payment of duty mandatory for importers registered under Accredited Clients Programme and importers paying customs duty of one lakh rupees or more per Bill of Entry with effect from 17.09.2012.
Notification No. 83/2012-Cus(NT) dated 17.09.2012 stipulates that the following classes of importers shall pay customs duty electronically, namely:-
(i) Importers registered under Accredited Clients Programme.
(ii) Importers paying customs duty of one lakh rupees or more per bill of entry.
Now a concerned Netizen writes to us:
The e-payment of customs duty exceeding Rs.1 lac is fine and is commendable. But the interest on customs duty payable on the bonded goods beyond 90 days free period is required to be paid by manual challan.
If the system provides for e-payment of interest, it would be beneficial to both importer and Customs.
Kindly look into this aspect of e-payment system and upgrade the software to include interest column, which can be filled by the importer/payee, before completing the transaction of e-payment .
Will the Board/ICEGATE respond?