Refund of excise duty - diplomatic missions – new procedure
The refund claims on purchase of excisable goods by diplomatic missions are received initially by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), and are forwarded with required certification to the offices of the jurisdictional Assistant/ Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise. The claim is processed and refund cheques are sent to MEA for onward transmission to the diplomatic missions/posts. However, certain instances were brought to the notice of the Board, where even though refund claims were submitted to the MEA by the diplomatic missions within one year, but the claims became time-barred, as there was a delay in forwarding the said claims to the jurisdictional Assistant/ Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise.
To avoid this kind of problems, the CBEC has designated the officer in MEA receiving the refund claim as an AC/DC of Central Excise and so now the time clock will start ticking immediately after this MEA officer receivers the claim.
Now Board has decided that the MEA has to forward the refund claim to the AC/DC concerned (Board says concerned AC) within thirty days. And if any interest is to be paid for delayed refund, the MEA will have to bear the interest for the period beyond thirty days it took to send the claim to the Revenue! May be there will be a big case between the MEA and MOF in the near future on this issue!
CIRCULAR NO. , Dated: august 13, 2007