General guidelines for implementation of e-payment of refund/rebate - Customs - FACILITY NOTICE NO. 03/2016

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (PREVENTIVE) 'SARDA HOUSE' BEDI BANDAR ROAD OPP. PANCHVATI, JAMNAGAR -361008 F. No. VIII/48-57/CUS-T/2016 Dated 22.09.2016 FACILITY NOTICE NO. 03/2016 Sub.:- General guidelines for implementation of e-payment of refund/rebate-Reg. 1. Attention of all the Importers, Customs Brokers and the Members of the Trade is invited to the Board's Circular No.1013/1/2016-CX dated 12.01.2016 on the above subject regarding the procedure for payment of refund. 2. In order to speed up the transfer of the refund directly to the beneficiary s bank account after sanction of the refund claim and thereby promoting ease. of doing business, the following procedure for e-payment of refunds/ rebate is hereby prescribed for implementation by all the concerned field formations (in both SAD refund and other than SAD refund cases):- I. E-PAYMENT THROUGH AUTHORIZED BANKS a) The payment under the system of electronic payment of refund 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 field formation is maintaining Government 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 jurisdictional Assistant/ Deputy Commissioner of Customs, after obtaining concurrence from the authorized bank(s) within the jurisdiction of the Commissionerate to provide for payment of refund to assessees through RTGS/NEFT facility, shall authorize the refund sanctioning authorities within the jurisdiction of Customs (Preventive), Jamnagar to make e-payment of refund/ rebate through such authorized banks only. d) The banks may charge the refund claimant fee for remitting the refund amount through RTGS/NEFT as per RBI guidelines and the claimant would get only the net amount. This should be quantified and fixed in consultation with the authorized bank for payment to the claimant's account. II. PROCEDURE FOR E-PAYMENT a) While filing refund/ rebate claim for the first time, the claimants opting for this facility 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 shall be sent to the bank along with the first refund sanction order of the applicant. b) The refund sanctioning authority would forward the following documents 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 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 the 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. The concerned Assistant/Deputy Commissioners in-charge 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. b) After the transfer of the sanctioned refund amount to the beneficiary's account, UTR reports received from the bank should be sent by the refund sanctioning authority to the PAO concerned at the end of each month enclosing the details of cheques issued with the date and amount. A sample copy of the enclosure to the letter to PAO is enclosed as Annexure-C. c) After the 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 is requested to reconcile the cheques issued by the field formations in respect of the 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. 4. For all pending claims, where refund orders have not been issued before the date of issue of this Public Notice, the claimants shall provide immediately the necessary authorization in duplicate duly certified by the beneficiary bank 5. Difficulty, if any, in implementation of the above procedure may be brought to the notice of the undersigned. (M.K. SRIVASTAVA) Commissioner