Customs - Rate of Interest - CBEC Rescinds the Wrong Notification
IN exercise of the powers conferred by clause (ii) of sub-section (2) of Section 61 of the Customs Act, the CBEC has rescinded Notification No. 18/2003-Customs, dated 1st March 2003.
Section 61(2) as amended by Finance Act 2016 reads as:
Where any warehoused goods specified in clause (c) of sub-section (1) remain in a warehouse beyond a period of ninety days from the date on which the proper officer has made an order under sub-section (1) of section 60, interest shall be payable at such rate as may be fixed by the Central Government under section 47, on the amount of duty payable at the time of clearance of the goods, for the period from the expiry of the said ninety days till the date of payment of duty on the warehoused goods :
So, this Section fixes the interest rate for warehoused goods as the rate fixed under Section 47 which is 15% vide Notification No. , dated 13.05.2002.
Notification No. 18/2003-Cus, dated 01.03.2003 which the CBEC has now rescinded, relates to the amendment to the Customs Tariff and has nothing to do with the rate of interest for warehoused goods.
What the Board wanted to rescind was obviously Notification No. , dated 01.03.2003. That is instead of rescinding a Non Tariff Notification, they rescinded a Tariff Notification. They just forgot to put NT in that notification, but this small slip is a major blunder. I am sure they will silently add that NT in the Notification and replace the notification in their website making all those who downloaded the notification earlier from their website look silly, foolish and wrong. But that is how the Board usually corrects its unpardonable blunders. Rarely do they allow assessees to correct their mistakes.
Notification No. , Dated: July 08, 2016