While unveiling the New Foreign Trade Policy, 2023, the commerce Minister introduced an amnesty scheme for one time settlement of default in export obligation by Advance Authorisation and EPCG authorisation holders. Accordingly, the DGFT has issued Public Notice No. 2/2023 dated April 01, 2023. The key aspects of the Scheme are as follows:
- Coverage of Scheme: All variants of authorisations issued under AA’s and EPCG schemes:
- Under Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14 till 31 March 2015 are covered.
- Under Foreign Trade Policy, 2004-2009 and before, the coverage is limited to those authorizations whose Export Obligation Period (original or extended) was valid beyond August 12, 2013.
- The details of the Scheme:
- All pending cases of the default in meeting Export Obligation (EO) of authorizations mentioned in (1) above can be regularized by the authorisation holder on payment of all customs duties that were exempted in proportion to unfulfilled Export Obligation and interest @100% of such duties exempted. However, no interest is payable on the portion of Additional Customs Duty and Special Additional Customs Duty.
- If entire authorization is under default, the applicants can pay Customs duty plus interest with the Jurisdictional Customs authorities concerned and submit proof thereof to the RA DGFT concerned.
- If there is partial default, the RA, based on the specific request and application for Export Obligation Discharge Certificate (EODC), shall intimate the applicant of the details of the default on which duty and interest are payable, on that basis, the applicant can remit the duties with jurisdictional customs authorities and submit copy proof thereof to RA.
- Any authorisation holder choosing to avail of this benefit must complete the process of registration on or before December 31st, 2023 and Customs duty remittance has to be made on or before 31st March 2024.
- Cases which have already been adjudicated (or pending adjudication), can also be regularized under this Public Notice. The procedure for regularization of such cases would be as under:-
- For cases which have already been adjudicated (or pending adjudication) and no appeal has been filed, the applicant will produce a copy of this closure letter from the concerned RA, to the Adjudicating Authority.
- Where an appeal has been filed, the closure letter will have to be submitted to the appellate authority, which will decide the closure and will inform the applicant.
- Cases under investigation or cases adjudicated for fraud, misdeclaration or unauthorized diversion of material and/or capital goods are excluded from this scheme.
- No CENVAT or Refund under any provision of the law of any amount shall be allowed on duties paid under the scheme. The applicant shall also give an undertaking that they will not file any application for CENVAT/Refund of duties paid, before any authority or court
- If duty along with interest is already deposited in full, the case would not be eligible for this scheme
To read the Public Notice about the scheme, click here.
Conclusion: Closure of long pending cases with a saving of Special & Additional Custom Duty.
At Andees, as a part of our services, we guide & assist you on a complete aspect of the amnesty scheme, hand holding you in the registration on the DGFT portal, the analysis of documents, the preparation of an action plan, the submission of the necessary documents at the DGFT, payment of duties at Customs, obtaining the EODC letters and obtaining the bond cancellation from Customs.
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