Duty free import of Wheat - withdrawn – Not really – Reintroduced
As per Notification No. 21/2002-Cus., dated 1.3.2002, import of wheat is exempted from Customs Duty. This is covered under Sl. No. 18A of the Table to the Notification. As per proviso (h) to the Notification, this exemption is not applicable after 1.3.2007. Means the exemption has lapsed. Obviously somebody in the Board forgot about this sunset clause. But obviously wheat has to be imported duty free. But how to go about it? There are two ways
(1) The clause (h) of the proviso says that nothing in the Notification shall apply to goods specified against Sl. No. 18A of the Table on or after the 1stMarch, 2007. This 1stMarch, 2007 could have been amended to read as 1st January, 2008. But that would have been too simple.
(2) The clause (h) of the proviso and Sl. No. 18 could be deleted and a new clause (iab) and a new Sl. No. 18AA could be inserted with the same words as the deleted clause and the Sl. No. except for changing 1stMarch, 2007 to 1st January, 2008.
And as usual the Board has adopted the second way.
So, wheat, after all can be imported without payment of duty till the end of the year, but God forbid, if there were any imports during the Month of March 2007, they are destined to suffer duty.
Notification No. , dated March 30, 2007