The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Thursday through a circular initiated a special drive for disposal of applications for fixation of Brand Rate of Duty Drawback.
The Board in order to mitigate the hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the trade and industry and other stakeholders initiated a special refund and drawback disposal drive from April 9, 2020, to April 30, 2020.
The significant objective of this special drive is priority processing and disposal of all pending refund and drawback claims so as to provide immediate relief to the business entities and especially MSMEs.
The exporters have brought to notice of the Board about the delay in fixation and disbursal of Brand Rate of duty drawback. The reports regarding the age-wise pendency status of applications for fixation of Brand Rate received from the Zones show that a majority of them are pending beyond the period of six months.
“Brand Rate of duty drawback can be claimed on the basis of the actual incidence of duties under Rules 6 or 7 of Customs and Central Excise Duties Drawback Rules, 2017 (Drawback Rules, 2017). Prior to the Drawback Rules, 2017, claims for Brand Rate of duty drawback were filed in terms of Customs, Central Excise Duties and Service Tax Drawback Rules, 1995. In addition to the Brand Rate fixation, payment of provisional All Industry Rate (AIR) of duty drawback in cases of export under claim for Brand Rate is to be allowed under Rule 7(3) to the claimants. A facility to obtain a provisional Brand Rate is also available under Rule 6(2) and 7(3) on such requests being made by the exporter. A gist of the Brand Rate scheme, including the Normal scheme and the Revised Simplified scheme, is annexed for ready reference,” the circular said.
“With a view to tackling such pending claims for Brand Rate fixation and consequent disbursal of the claim, it has been decided that a special drive should be undertaken by the Customs Zones to dispose of off the pendency so that no application received up to 31.05.2020 is pending at the end of the drive on 30.06.2020. Due precaution should be taken to have a minimal physical interface with the exporters/ representative during the process and required applications, documents, etc. should be obtained electronically to the extent possible,” the Board further clarified.
The Board has issued broad guidelines which are to be followed while disposing of the claims during the drive such as all applications that are complete in all respects for fixation of final Brand Rate, for which verification has been completed or held as not to be required, should be disposed of; exporter’s request for provisional Brand Rate should also be considered and disposed of. For this purpose, any claim pending for provisional AIR under Rule 7 of Drawback Rules, 2017 should also invariably be processed; cases where no application for provisional Brand Rate has been filed, an option may be offered to the applicant to apply for provisional Brand Rate, and the same may be considered as per the Rules; etc.
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