We had imported a certain consignment and paid duty. The goods have reached our factory but the Bill of Entry (B/E) is lost. We are unable to take Cenvat Credit. Is there a way out?
First, you file a police complaint/FIR about the loss of the B/E. Then, you approach the bank to which you may have submitted the exchange control copy of the B/E with a request to issue an attested/certified copy of the B/E and obtain a dated acknowledgment. If you have lost the B/E even before submitting the B/E copy to the bank, then inform the bank and obtain a dated acknowledgment. Thereafter, you may approach the Customs with a copy of the letter submitted to the bank, the dated acknowledgment and a copy of the reply received from the bank, if any, copy of the police complaint/FIR and an indemnity bond (duly notarised in the required pro forma) to indemnify any loss of revenue to the government due to misuse.
The Customs will issue a Certificate in lieu of B/E, based on which you may approach your excise authorities to permit taking Cenvat Credit. If they insist on a duplicate B/E, then obtain a letter to that effect from them and submit it to the Customs. For the detailed procedures for issue of Certificate in lieu of B/E as well as duplicate B/E, you may refer to Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House Public Notice no.49/2010 dated 26.04.2010.
We would like to procure some inputs from local suppliers without payment of excise duty, for use in export production. Under notification 43/2001-CE (NT) dated 26.6.2001, we are required to furnish several details for verification of input-output ratio, i.e., the consumption norms, to our excise authorities. Can we ask for inputs as per the Standard Input Output Norms (SION) notified by the Director General of Foreign Trade?
Yes. Para 2.2 of Part VI of Chapter 7 of Manual of Supplementary Instructions issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) says that SION may be accepted unless there are specific reasons for variation, and further clarifies that even if SION does not cover all the inputs used in export production, the claim under the scheme should not be denied merely on that ground.
We have received a show cause notice (SCN) alleging intent to evade service tax and proposing a penalty equal to service tax not paid, in addition to claim of service tax and interest. We are ready to pay service tax and interest, but is there any way to get the penalty amount reduced?
If you have maintained true and complete records, the penalty can be reduced to 50 per cent. If upon adjudication, you pay the service tax within 30 days, the penalty of 25 per cent only need be paid (within 30 days). This period can be extended to 90 days if the value of service provided was less than Rs 60 lakh in the previous year or any of the years covered by the SCN. For details, please see the provisos to Section 78 of the Finance Act, 1994.
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