Against our advance authorisation, we have fulfilled our export obligation and submitted necessary documents to the Joint Director General of Foreign Trade (JDGFT), who has issued the export obligation discharge certificate (EODC). We have submitted the same to the Customs but they are asking for documents again to confirm discharge of export obligation. Can the Customs not accept the EODC issued by JDGFT and redeem our bond?
According to the Customs, there are two types of EODCs issued by JDGFT. One type bears the requirement that the Customs Authority shall verify the details of exports from their records. Another type does not bear any such requirement. Wherever the EODC issued by JDGFT bears the requirement that the Customs department should carry out verification, then such verification shall be done as per the existing procedure. In other cases, the EODC shall be accepted unless there is intelligence suggesting misuse. The Customs DEEC Monitoring Cell may also, however, call for and verify details of exports and other related aspects on a random basis. You may refer to Public Notice no. 11/2011 dated 20th February 2011 issued by Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House in this regard.
Has any notification extending the Duty Entitlement Passbook (DEPB) Scheme for three months been issued? Can you inform if any alternate scheme has been conceived and whether we need to submit any data for that?
DGFT Public Notice no. 54 dated 17th June 2011 and Customs Notification no. 51/2011 dated 22nd June 2011 extend the DEPB scheme till 30th September 2011. It is not known whether any alternate scheme has been conceived, but no data has been called for from the trade in this regard. However, if you have any suggestions for an alternate scheme, you can send them to the DGFT. There is already an old proposal to expand the All Industry Rate of Duty Drawback to cover more items. Whether the government wants to do that is not yet clear. If you want your item included in the All Industry Rate schedule, you may forward the necessary data through your Export Promotion Council.
Our excise department is refusing to sanction our rebate claim on the grounds that we have submitted a copy of only a ‘seaway Bill’ and not a copy of our ‘Bill of lading’. What is the difference between a ‘Bill of lading’ and a ‘seaway Bill’?
A ‘Bill of lading’ is a document of title to the goods, besides evidence for receipt of goods and contract of carriage. It is negotiable in the sense that you can transfer the title to the goods covered by the ‘Bill of lading’ by making an endorsement to that effect. A seaway Bill is consigned directly to the consignee and is not a document of title to the goods, in the sense that you cannot transfer the title to the goods by way of endorsement. There is no justification to refuse your rebate claim as the ‘seaway Bill’ is undoubtedly a document evidencing receipt of goods and contract of carriage.
Business Standard invites readers’ SME queries related to excise, VAT and exim policy. You can write to us at smechat@bsmail.in