Procedure for e-payment of refund/rebate for implementation - Service Tax - TRADE NOTICE NO. 01/2016/CE

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER CENTRAL EXCISE SERVICE TAX, GUWAHATI SETHI TRUST BUILDING, 5 th FLOOR, G.S. ROAD, BHANGAGARH GUWAHATI - 781 005 C. No. IV(16)30/Hqrs/Tech/Ghy/2016/3067-84 Dated- 28-04-2016 TRADE NOTICE NO. 01/2016/CE Sub: Procedure for e-payment of refund/rebate for implementation Attention is invited to the procedure followed by the field formations of this Commissionerate for payment of refund (including refunds sanctioned under area based exemption Notifications)/rebate. Presently the field formations follow the manual handing-over/despatch of cheques for payment of refund/rebate. Consequent to the sanction of refund/rebate claims by the competent authority, cheques are being issued and the same are sent by either registered post or handed over to authorized persons. The present procedure entails paper work, manpower deployment by the claimants and delay in payment of refunds. 2. In order to speed up the transfer of the fund directly to the beneficiary's Bank Account after sanction of the refund/rebate claim and thereby promote ease of doing business, the Central Board of Excise Customs, New Delhi vide Circular No.1013/1/2016-CX dated 12.01.2016 has prescribed a detailed procedure for e-payment of refund/rebate for implementation by all field formations. In compliance with the facilitation issued vide the said Circular, the following procedure is prescribed for implementation: I. E-PAYMENT THROUGH AUTHORIZED BANKS a) The payment under the system of electronic payment of refund/ rebate amounts through RTGS/NEFT facility shall be made by the field formations through authorized banks. b) As the field formations are maintaining current account with nearest Govt. business enabled branch of the State Bank of India, the e-payment procedure shall be implemented through those branches. c) The banks may charge the refund claimant fee for remitting refund amount through RTGS/NEFT as per RBI guidelines and the claimant would get only the net amount. II. PROCEDURE FOR E-PAYMENT a) For all fresh refund (including area based refund)/ Rebate claims filed on or after 02.05.2016 as well as all pending refund/Rebate claims, where Refund Orders have not been issued before 02.05.2016, the claimants shall provide one-time authorization, in duplicate, duly certified by the beneficiary bank in prescribed format (enclosed as Annexure-A). One copy shall be retained by the department and one copy shall be sent to the bank with the first refund sanction order of the applicant. b) Divisional Deputy/Assistant Commissioners as mentioned in Col.2 of TABLE below are authorized DDOs to issue Cheques for disbursal of Refund/ Rebate hitherto in respect of the Refund/ Rebate Sanctioned by authorities mentioned in corresponding Col.3 of the said TABLE. Sl. No. Cheque issuing authority Refund/ Rebate sanctioning authority Name of Bank 1. 2. 3. 4. 1 Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise Division-I, Guwahati Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise Division-I, Guwahati State Bank of India, Guwahati Branch, Pan Bazar, M.G. Road, District Kamrup, Guwahati 781 001. Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise Division-II, Guwahati Deputy/Assistant Commissioner Service Tax Division Guwahati Deputy/Assistant Commissioner Customs Division Guwahati 2 Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise Service Tax Division, Tezpur Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise Service Tax Division, Tezpur State Bank of India, Tezpur Branch (00195), P.O. Tezpur, District Sonitpur, Assam 3 Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise Service Tax Division, Itana ar Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise Service Tax Division, Itanagar State Bank of India, Itanagar Branch 4 Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise Service Tax Division, Dhubri Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise Service Tax Division, Dhubri State Bank of India, Main Branch, Dhubri Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, Customs Division, Dhubri c) Upon receipt of the Refunds/Rebates sanctioned by Refund sanctioning authorities as at Col.3, the DDO shall issue a cheque for consolidated refund/rebate amount. They would forward to the authorized bank at periodic intervals: i) a signed statement (copy of sample format enclosed as Annexure-B) of sanctioned orders which inter alia contains details of the beneficiaries and the amounts sanctioned, ii) a cheque in favour of the bank as mentioned above for the consolidated refund/rebate amount, iii) a soft copy of the above statement to the banks through email. d) The authorities at Col.2 of the TABLE above shall ensure that at least one signed statement of sanctioned orders along with a cheque for the consolidated refund/ rebate amount, in the prescribed format (Annexure-B), is forwarded to the authorized bank in a given month. The said statement shall cover the details of all the refund/ rebate orders sanctioned till the date of forwarding of statement to the bank. d) Upon receipt of the statement signed and the cheque for the consolidated refund amount, the bank would credit the refund amounts to the respective accounts of the claimants through NEFT/RTGS after deducting the applicable NEFT/ RTGS charges as per RBI guidelines. The Deputy/Assistant Commissioners should ensure that there is no delay in the disbursal of the sanctioned amounts. III. PROCEDURE FOR RECONCILIATION a) A UTR (Unique Transaction Reference) is generated for each transfer of funds to the beneficiary's account by the bank. This UTR is a bank's acknowledgment evidencing the transfer of the fund to the claimant's bank account and should be collected from the bank at periodical intervals along with a periodic report in Format Annexure-C. b) After transfer of the sanctioned refund/rebate amount to the beneficiary's account, UTR's report received from the bank should be sent to the PAO concerned at the end of each month enclosing the details of cheques issued with date and amount. c) After transfer of the amounts to the claimants, the bank shall generate 'periodic scroll' containing the details of refund amount sanctioned to various claimants along with other details as necessary and send the same to the PAO concerned giving details of receipt of consolidated cheques and payments made by the bank. d) The PAO shall reconcile the cheques issued by the field formations in respect of the rebate/refund with the periodic scroll sent to them by the bank and report discrepancy, if any, to the field formation concerned who, in turn, would verify the same and send compliance report to the PAO. 3. Assessees who are availing Self Credit of Refund under Notifications No.32/99-CE or 33/99-CE, both dated 08.07.1999, as amended, or No.20/07-CE dated 25.04.2007, as amended, shall continue to avail Self Credit of monthly refund in their Account Current under the respective Notifications. 4. Difficulty, if any, in implementation of the above procedure may please be brought to the notice of this office. (Authority: CBEC's Circular No.1013/1/2016-CX dated 12.01.2016) (Viney Kumar Paul) Commissioner