New customs rule hits disbursal of duty drawback

MUMBAI, July 18: The new customs procedure introduced during October last year has resulted in the delay of disbursal of duty drawback to periods varying between two and three months as against the delay of only one month under the previous procedure. This lacuna came to light at a face-to-face interaction between the collectors of customs and exporters and importers at a meeting chaired by Ram P Gandhi, president, Indian Merchants’ Chamber (IMC) here today.

Bringing this lacuna in the new drawback procedure to the notice of the collectors of customs M G Venugopalan and D K Acharya, a representative of Tata Exports said that instead of simplifying the duty disbursal procedure, the new notification has complicated it and introduced elements of uncertainty. The customs collectors suggested that the lacuna may be brought to the notice of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) for rectification. Under the new procedure, an exporter is required to submit the drawback copy to the customs for an elaborate scrutiny by the drawback department before getting it back months later.

Instead under the procedure laid down by the earlier notification (PN No 37/95 dated of 26 may 1995), the exporter used to get back to the doccument from the customs after an on-the-spot check right at the counter, which helped in speeding up the disbursals, Tata Exports asserted.