GST roll-out and preparation thereof - Customs - TRADE FACILITY NO. 05/2017

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS CUSTOM HOUSE, WILLINGDON ISLAND, COCHIN-682009 F. No. C1/03/2016-TU. Cus. Dated: 28.06.2017. TRADE FACILITY NO. 05/2017 Subject: GST roll-out and preparation thereof -reg. Kind attention of exporters, importers, Customs Brokers, Steamer Agents and all other stakeholders is drawn to the Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative Department) Notification published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section-I, vide No. 19 dated 05.05.2017 to notify the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2017 (No. 18 of 2017) [copy available at http://egazette.nic.in] and the 'Advisory on Customs related matters on Introduction of Goods and Service Tax regime' dated 20.06.2017 from the Special Secretary and Member, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) [copy available at www.cbec.gov.in]. 2. Vide the above notification, the Govt. of India has notified several changes in the Customs Act, 1962, the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, the Central Excise Act, 1944, the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, the Finance Act, 2001 and the Finance Act, 2005 and has repealed certain enactments. The salient features of the changes notified, as listed in the Advisory is summarised below: (i) Under Sub-section (1) of section 5 of the Integrated Goods and Services Act, 2017 a tax called the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) shall be levied on all goods except on the supply of alcohol for human consumption. The integrated tax on goods imported into India shall be levied and collected with effect from 01.07.2017 as per the provisions of Section 3 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 on the value as determined under the said Act at the point when duties of Customs are levied on the said goods under Section 12 of the Customs Act, 1962. (ii) The levy of CVD and SAD shall cease to exist on imported goods other than those on which Central Excise Duty/ VAT continues to be levied even in the new regime. The necessary amendments that have been made in Section 3 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 had been notified vide the Gazette Notification mentioned at para 1 above. In addition to the IGST, any article imported into India shall be liable to goods and services tax compensation cess, wherever applicable, at such rate tax under the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Cess Act, 2017. The value, as a percentage of which, the above mentioned tax is leviable is explained in the above mentioned notification. It is requested that the fine-print of Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2017 is read by field officers in detail. Customs ICES 1.5 application is also being modified to ensure that the new levies are applied and collected on all the imports from 01.07.2017. (iii) In light of the changes notified, Bill of Entry, Shipping Bill and Courier Regulations and forms, both Manual and EDI, have been suitably modified and all such modified forms are available on the website www.cbec.gov.in. (iv) It may be noted that the information in the Bill of Entry would be reconciled with their returns on GSTN. Accordingly, the credit claimed in GST Return in respect of IGST paid on imports would be cross checked with the Customs EDI system. Therefore, with effect from 01.07.2017, the importers shall mandatorily declare their GSTIN i.e., the GST Registration number on the Bill of Entry to claim the credit of the IGST paid on the imported goods. Importers not registered with GSTN will be required to declare their PAN along with their State Code, as per the Census of India to enable the transfer of the IGST paid by the non GST importers to the account of the consumption state. Diplomatic organisations or UN bodies can quote their UIN issued by GSTN on the Bill of Entry. (v) In case of courier, GSTIN for GST registered consignees or PAN for non- registered consignees, as applicable, has to be quoted in the Bill of Entry filed by the Courier agency, wherever goods are subject to IGST. (vi) For calculating the IGST or Compensation Cess, chapter-wise, rate-wise GST schedule, IGST exemption, concession list and GST Compensation cess rates are available on the official website of CBEC. The importer shall quote the applicable levy notification's number and the exemption notification wherever applicable in respect of each imported item for application of the correct rate. The total IGST and Compensation cess paid will be published on every Bill of Entry which may be quoted to claim the corresponding credit in the GST return. (vii) Under Section 16 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 export of goods shall be zero rated supply and credit of the input tax may be availed. The mode of making zero rated supply is explained in the said Section. (viii) It is imperative that in the case of Manual Bill of Entry and Shipping Bill the requisite data for validation related to IGST refund or flow of IGST credit shall be electronically captured without fail for all the imports and exports whether or not through EDI locations. In EDI locations, the instructions of the Board issued vide F.No.401/81/2011-Cus.III dated 02.06.2017 may be followed. The non-EDI locations may consider having a nodal officer in each of such location who is entrusted with uploading this information, preferably on the same day. 4. Consequent to the above mentioned changes notified by the Board, all the stakeholders are required to take cognisance and comply with the same. 5. This issues with the approval of the Chief Commissioner. Sd/- (Pullela Nageswara Rao) Commissioner of Customs