Export - Refund - Procedural Hassles

By Vijay Kumar

YET another issue raised was: For filing of refund claim of Excise duty on exports, ARE is required to be attached with refund application. Getting of ARE from customs takes at least 45 to 60 days time & refund takes further 90 days. In short, refund of excise duty takes about 4 to 5 months after export. At the time of filing of refund claim, it is requested that assesses should be required to submit shipping bill & mate receipt as proof of export with copy of invoice & extract of RG23 part II for verification of payment of excise duty. This will save lot of time for filing of refund application by the exporters for getting refund of Excise duty.

The Department Replied:

The procedures have already been laid down by the CBEC to be followed in case of admitting proof of export and for granting rebate in respect of goods exported. Further, Instructions/Circulars are also being issued by the Board from time to time for this purpose. The Rebate sanctioning authority after satisfying himself that the goods have been exported, by way of verifying the relevant document and also by counter verifying the same from the Government site, sanction the claim accordingly.

As per the provisions of Notification No. 19/2004 - CE (NT) dated 06.09.2004 as amended, issued under Rule 18 of Central Excise Rules, 2002, it is clearly mentioned that the rebate sanctioning authority shall compare the duplicate copy of application received from the officer of Customs with the original copies received from the exporter and with triplicate copy received from the Central Excise officer and if satisfied that the claim is in order (with regard to the let export order by Customs and verification of assessment of Central Excise duty by Range Superintendent) he shall sanction the rebate either in whole or in part.

The matter relating to procedure for online filing of ARE 1 has already been referred to the Committee constituted by the Board to study the export procedure requiring simplification and automation including sanction of refund/rebate payment.