Direct credit of Refund/ Rebate to the Exporters' credit by way of Electronic payment under RTGS/ NEFT facility - Service Tax - TRADE NOTICE NO. 31/2013-CE

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, CENTRAL EXCISE SERVICE TAX, RAJKOT CENTRAL EXCISE BHAVAN , RACE COURSE RING ROAD, RAJKOT - 360 001 F. No. IV/8-1/MP/2013 DATED 14.10.2013 TRADE NOTICE NO. 31/2013-CE Sub:- Direct credit of Refund/ Rebate to the Exporters' credit by way of Electronic payment under RTGS/ NEFT facility-reg. It is noticed that the present practice of issuing account payee cheques to the refund claimants is cumbersome and entails lot of paperwork, including return of cheques due to incomplete address, clerical errors etc. leading to delay in realization of the refund/ rebate amounts by the claimants. In order to alleviate these problems, it has been decided to introduce electronic payment / remittance of sanctioned rebate / refund amounts known as RTGS/NEFT facility offered by State Bank of India, mandatorily for every refund / rebate claim, for crediting the sanctioned refund / rebate claim amounts directly to claimant's account with effect from 01.11.2013. For this purpose, the following procedure is prescribed. (i) For all fresh claims of refund / rebate received after 15.10.2013, the claimants shall provide One Time Authorisation with claim of refund/ rebate filed by the assessee (in duplicate), duly certified by the beneficiary Bank branch authorities, in the enclosed format as Annexure A, at the time of filing such refund / rebate claims, in favour of the jurisdictional Divisional DC/AC or Maritime Commissioner. For all subsequent refund/ rebate claims, the claimant shall submit self attested copy of the Authorisation already submitted to the Div. DC/ AC / Maritime Commissioner. The Authorisation shall be valid for one Financial Year and a fresh Authorisation shall be filed along with first refund claim filed in the subsequent Financial Year. (ii) Authorizations filed for each Financial Year shall be given a serial number and entered in an Authorisation Register to be maintained by the respective refund sanctioning authority. In case of any change in the details of Authorisation, new Authorisation, duly certified by the Bank, shall be submitted by the claimant. The refund sanctioning authority shall ensure the correctness of the reference to earlier Authorisation and all details shall be incorporated in the Authorisation Register. (iii) In case of pending refund/ rebate claims as on 31.10.2013, where refund/ rebate has not been sanctioned or if sanctioned, has not been paid to the claimant in those cases also the payment will be made through RTGS/ NEFT facility of State Bank of India. For this purpose, such Authorisation is to be obtained from such claimants by 31.10.2013. (iv) All jurisdictional DC/ AC / Maritime Commissioner are authorized to order for payment of refund under the system of Electronic payment of sanctioned rebate refund amounts through RTGS / NEFT facility, through Authorized Branch of State Bank of India, Rajkot. For this purpose, the jurisdictional DC/ AC / Maritime Commissioner shall submit a list of sanctioned refund claims in the form mentioned in Annexure B and an email copy to the Bank, along with a cheque for consolidated refund amount. The Bank after tallying all relevant details shall remit the sanctioned refund amounts to the respective beneficiaries mentioned in the Annexure B, out of the consolidated fund amount on the cheque. (iv) It is further clarified that bank may charge the refund claimant, the charges for remitting refund amount through RTGS/ NEFT and refund claimant would get only the net amount. The jurisdictional Divisional DC/AC/Maritime Commissioner shall issue the Refund Order after mentioning the payment/ remittance details i.e. UTR no. in the Refund/ Rebate Order. (viii) All Trade Associations are requested to bring the contents of this Trade Notice to the notice of their members in particular and the Trade in general. (V. PADMANABHAN) COMMISSIONER