General guidelines for implementation e-payment of refund/rebate - Central Excise - Trade Notice No. 04/2016

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, MINISTRY OF FINANCE, DEPARTMENT. OF REVENUE OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (PREVENTIVE) NORTH EASTREN REGION, CUSTOMS HOUSE, 110 M.G. ROAD, SHILLONG - 793 001 C. No. VIII(48)9/CUS/TECH/OT.MISC/2014/19978-95(B) Dated: Shillong, the 17th May, 2016 Trade Notice No. 04/2016 Subject: General guidelines for implementation e-payment of refund/rebate. The trade and ail concerned are informed that presently most of the field formations follow the Manual handing over/despatch of cheques for payment of refund/rebate /drawback claims. 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 the authorized persons. The present procedure entails paper work, manpower deployment by the claimants and delay in payment of refunds. In order to speed up the transfer of the fund directly to the beneficiary s bank account after sanction of the refund/rebate/drawback 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/drawback far implementation by all field formations. In compliance with the facilitation issued vide the said Circular, the following procedure for e-payment of refund/rebate/drawback is hereby prescribed for implementation by all field formations: I. E-Payment through authorised 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 most of the field formations are maintaining current account with nearest Government business enabled branch of the State Bank of India, the e-payment procedure may be implemented through those branches. In case any formation is maintaining Govt. account with Bank (S) other than the State Bank of India, e-payment may be made through such bank(s). More than one bank may also be authorized for e- payment. (c) The banks may charge the refund claimant fee for remitting refund amount through RTGS/NEFT as per RBI guidelines and he claimant would get only the net amount. II. PROCEDURE FOR E-PAYMENT (a) For all fresh refund/rebate/drawback claims filed on or after 20-05-2016 as well as pending refund/rebate/drawback claims where Refund Orders have not been issued before 20-05-2016 , the claimants shall provide one-time authorization in duplicate , duly certified by the beneficiary bank in a prescribed format (enclosed as Annexure A). One copy shall be retained by the department and one copy shah be sent to the bank with the first refund sanction order of the applicant. (b) The refund sanctioning authority 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 all the consolidated refund/rebate amount, (iii) A soft copy of the above statement to the banks through e-mail. (c) The refund sanctioning authority 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 by the refund sanctioning authority 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. Commissioners are expected to 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 acknowledgement evidencing the transfer of the fund to the claimant's bank account and should be collected from the bank at periodical intervals alongwith a periodic report to be prescribed by the Commissioner. (b) After transfer of the sanctioned rebate amount to the beneficiary's account, UTR's report received from the bank should be sent by the refund sanctioning authority to the PAO concerned at the end of each month enclosing the detaiis of cheques issued with date and amount. A sample copy of the enclosure to the letter to the PAO is enclosed as Annexure-C, if needed, may be locally amended/ modified. (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. (e) Difficulties, if any, in implementation of the above procedure may please be brought to the notice of this office. Sd/- (Bandhana Deori) Commissioner