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TMI Blog2021 (9) TMI 906X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Merchandise Exports From India Scheme (MEIS) in respect of shipping bill dated 14th June, 2018. 2. The background facts are that the Petitioner is engaged in the export of ferro alloys to various countries. The Petitioner holds a valid importer exporter code. 3. Chapter 3 of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) is titled 'Exports from India Schemes'. It is stated that there are two schemes namely (i) Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and (ii) Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) with an underlying objective to provide rewards to exporters to offset infrastructural inefficiencies and associated costs. It is stated that while MEIS covers exporters of goods, SEIS covers the exporters of services. 4. Paragraph 3.02 of the FTP prov ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ize the process of filing of shipping bills. This is an addition to the manual filing of bills which are referred to as non-EDI shipping bills. It is further stated that to ease the process of availing benefits, a Shipping Bill Repository (SBR) has been introduced in the DGFT online system in terms of which the shipping bills and Bank Realization Certificate (BRC) both EDI and non-EDI could be stored at one place. The SBR contains the shipping bills and BRCs which can be linked online with the applications for the purpose of claiming benefits under the MEIS. 7. The linking of the shipping bill from the repository to the ECOM portal is dependent on the exporter marking "Yes" in the reward column of the shipping bill. If it is marked "No" th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... creen shot of the shipping bill status in the MEIS module. No response was, however, received. 12. On 25th February, 2020 the Petitioner approached the Policy Relaxation Committee (PRC) headed by DGFT by filing form ANF 2D. The Petitioner prayed for relaxation of condition in paragraph 3.14 of the HBP which requires the exporters to mark "Y" in the shipping bill to claim the benefit under the MEIS. After a personal hearing was afforded to the Petitioner, the decision of the PRC taken on 13th August, 2020 was uploaded of the DGFT on 20th August, 2020. The said order held that the Petitioner was not eligible to claim the benefit under the MEIS since 'No' was ticked in the shipping bill. The operative portion of the order reads as under: "T ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 23rd June, 2021of the Division Bench (DB) of that High Court in The Commissioner of Customs v. Anu Cashews and Mangalath Cashews 2020 (3) TMI 1066 (Kerala) (DB). He also placed reliance on the decision of the Madras High Court in Pasha International v. The Commissioner of Customs 2019(2) TMI 1187 and the judgment dated 23rd June, 2021 of the Madras High Court in W.P.(C) No.16328 of 2020 (M/s. K.I. International Ltd. v. The Commissioner of Customs (Appeal-II)). Lastly he relied on the decision of the Bombay High Court dated 2nd March, 2021 in W.P. No.2532 of 2019 (Portescap India Private Limited v. Union of India). 16. Mr. Chimanka, learned Sr. Standing Counsel for the Opposite Parties on the other hand reiterated the submission in the cou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... med by the DB in The Commissioner of Customs v. Anu Cashews and Mangalath Cashews (supra). The DB observed as under: "As already found by the learned Single Judge, the intention was explicit from other details uploaded in the portal and also from the documents relating to the shipping. Therefore, the omission seems to have been quite inadvertent. There is no justification in denying the claim, based on such an inadvertent omission. In the matter of condoning such an omission, there cannot be a discrimination between exporters who made the claim within six months and those who have raised the claim after six months of introduction of the Schemes." 20. The above decisions appear to have attained finality. There is no indication that any ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ets. Once this is done, the party is titled and eligible to claim its reward. For claiming the reward, procedure as envisaged under the policy, handbook of procedure (HOP), rules and various public notices like public notice No.47/2015-20 dated 08.12.2015 and public notice No.9/2015-20 dated 16.05.2016 are required to be complied with. In the instant case, while doing so, petitioner had inadvertently committed an error while filing up the claim form on the DGFT portal and entered its declaration of intent as "N" (for No) instead of "Y" (for Yes) resulting in rejection of petitioner's claim for reward under MEIS. Except for this inadvertent mistake, petitioner is otherwise eligible and entitled to the reward under MEIS. In our considered opi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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