2019 (11) TMI 795 - HC - Customs

Benefit of the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme MEIS - denial of export benefit on the ground that the exporter not having indicated its intention of claiming the benefit under the MEIS Scheme, the necessary verification of the export consignment was not done prior to its export, and a verification of the export consignment is now not possible - HELD THAT - A perusal of the screen shot produced indicates that there are separate columns wherein the description of the goods, and the intention of the exporter to claim the export benefit, can be entered. Over and above this, there is another column requiring the exporter to indicate whether he intends to avail the benefit of the Export Benefit Scheme against which the default setting reads as No - the default setting in respect of a claim for the benefit of an Export Promotion Scheme is always in the negative, and it requires a positive act on the part of the exporter to uncheck the box reading No and check the box reading Yes , for the purposes of claiming the benefit. While the exporter did not check the box concerned to read Yes , in the column meant for the description of the goods he had clearly indicated his intention to avail the benefit of the Export Promotion Scheme - Under such circumstances, the denial of a claim for export benefit could not have been done in a mechanical manner merely because there was a technical lapse on the part of the exporter concerned in not checking a particular box in the web portal, more so when there was sufficient indication from the other details entered therein that pointed to the exporter's intention to claim the reward. The writ petitions disposed of with a direction to the respondents, including the additional 5th respondent in both the writ petitions, to consider the claim of the petitioners for export benefit, afresh, and to grant the export benefits, if on an overall consideration of the details furnished by the petitioner, the intention to claim the benefit of the MEIS Scheme was seen manifested at the time of export.

Summary

Issues:
Claiming benefit under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) due to technical error in checking the appropriate box on the web portal.

Analysis:
The judgment involves two writ petitions concerning the entitlement of exporters to benefit from the MEIS under the Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-20. The entitlement under the MEIS Scheme, as per paragraph 3.04 of the Foreign Trade Policy, is based on the realized FOB value of exports in free foreign exchange or as given in Shipping Bills in freely convertible foreign currencies. The procedure for claiming MEIS benefits is outlined in paragraph 3.14 of the Hand Book of Procedures, which requires exporters to declare their intent to claim rewards by marking "Y" for Yes in the Reward column of shipping bills. In these cases, the petitioners inadvertently omitted to check the box indicating their intention to claim the reward under the MEIS Scheme, leading to the system recording the default setting as "No." Consequently, their claims for benefits were disallowed by the respondents, citing the lack of indication of intent.

Upon examination, it was revealed that the exporters had clearly indicated their intention to avail the Export Promotion Scheme benefits in the description of goods column, despite not checking the specific box for MEIS benefits. The court held that the denial of export benefit claims solely based on a technical lapse of not checking a particular box was unjustifiable, especially when other details indicated the exporter's intent to claim the reward. The judgment directed the respondents to reconsider the petitioners' claims for export benefits, emphasizing that if the intention to claim the MEIS Scheme benefit was evident from the details provided at the time of export, the benefits should be granted. The Customs Authorities were instructed to issue necessary No Objection Certificates in favor of the petitioners within a week to facilitate the process, and the additional 5th respondent was given one month to review the claims after hearing the petitioners.