Export Sealing - Is it mandatory to provide vehicle to CE Officer?
A senior officer in a MNC asked us whether he was mandatorily required to provide a vehicle to the Central Excise Officer visiting his factory for supervision/sealing of export consignment. He works in a MNC which wants to follow strict ethical standards and so does not want to provide vehicles to export inspecting Central Excise Officers.
Strictly speaking, there is no law, which requires the exporter to arrange a vehicle for the Central Excise Inspector/Superintendent. But a vehicle is considered to be one of the unofficial perks of office for a Central excise Officer. Actually whenever there is an export, the exporter is expected to provide a vehicle for the whole day, during which the actual export supervision may hardly take 10 minutes. But if a vehicle is not provided, the Excise Officer may come by public transport reaching the factory after a few hours upsetting the whole export schedule.
You don't need to provide a vehicle, but if you don't, your export itself is in jeopardy. So, you have to choose, whether you want your ethics or your exports.
DDT spoke to a few exporters and strangely none of them was against providing vehicles to Central Excise Officers for export supervision. They said, it was a matter of simple costing. Each seal by the Central Excise officers involves costs like providing a vehicle for the whole day and other incidental expenditure, which may come to about Rs. 5000/- per consignment. You know the sealing by the Excise Officers is purely optional the exporter can clear the goods on his own sealing. The exporters who have tried self-sealing in protest against the arrogant Central Excise officers have found that they are holy nuns compared to the Customs officers in the ports who are worse than the worst pirates. The self-sealed containers are subject to checks in the Customs Ports, where they are practically ravaged, delayed and costs are multiples of what it would cost to get them sealed by excise officers.
So, ultimately it is cheaper to provide a vehicle to the Central Excise Officer for the whole day for that 10 minute sealing of export consignment. If you seek legal advice, you may save on that car, but your export consignment will not leave your factory. Nobody has asked you to opt for sealing by the Central Excise Officer, and once you opt for it, you have to bear the consequential inconveniences including that irritant vehicle.
As per Rule 13 (1) of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, no Government servant shall accept, or permit any member of his family or any other person acting on his behalf to accept, any gift. As per the explanation to this Rule, "The expression "gift" shall include free transport, boarding, lodging or other service or any other pecuniary advantage when provided by any person other than a near relative or personal friend having no official dealings with the Government servant".
But there is a note which says that a casual meal, lift or other social hospitality shall not be deemed to be a gift. He is also allowed to accept a gift worth not more than Rs. 1500/-.
And in practice, no Central Excise Officer will demand a car for the export supervision you have to request him to accept your hospitality!