Skip to main content

Easing norms for exim trade

The Central Board of Excise and Customs ( CBEC) has developed an ‘ integrated declaration’ to incorporate all the information required for import clearance by various government agencies into the electronic format of the bill of entry. This is to be filed electronically at a single entry point, the Customs Gateway.
Separate application forms required by different agencies such as the Drugs Controller, Textile Committee, etc, would be dispensed with. This important step to provide the importers a single point interface for clearance of imported goods will go online from April 1, for consignments to be cleared under the Indian Customs EDI Systems but not for clearance of imported goods in the manual mode.
The integrated declaration has a portion to capture the text of different types of declarations, undertakings and letters of guarantee, etc, in the form of statements. These statements have been standardised and codified.
While giving the integrated declaration, the importer can specify the statement codes and printed copies of the bills of entry will contain the corresponding standardised texts.
The integrated declaration has a separate section on particulars of supporting documents to be provided with the bill of entry. The importer or his customs broker can also provide details of the supporting documents using this section. CBEC is in the process of procuring information technology infrastructure to capture digitally signed copies of the supporting documents. Once this is implemented, the need to provide hard copies of supporting documents will be dispensed with.
The latest instructions (dated March 15) follow the CBEC’s earlier circulars dated March 31, 2015, and February 3, 2016, regarding implementation of the ‘ Indian Customs Single Window Project’ to facilitate trade. It envisages lodging import or export documents at a single point and obtaining permissions from other regulatory agencies (such as animal or plant quarantine, drugs controller, textile committee, etc) online, without the importer/ exporter having to separately approach these. The single window would, thus, provide the importers/ exporters a single point interface for customs clearance of import and export goods, thereby reducing interface with government agencies, dwell time and cost of doing business, says CBEC.
In another useful circular, CBEC has clarified that the newly introduced provision for deemed conclusion of proceedings against ‘ other persons’ in a showcause notice will apply to persons on whom no demand of duty is envisaged. And, will be contingent upon the person to whom a showcause notice has been issued paying all the dues of duty, interest and penalty. The finance ministry has brought the Customs ( import of goods at concessional rate of duty for manufacture of excisable goods) Rules and the Central Excise (removal of goods at concessional rate of duty for manufacture of excisable and other goods) Rules into effect from March 16, instead of April 1 as notified earlier. Further, the requirement of submission of security for availing the benefit under the said rules has been done away with. These new rules reduce the time for payment of differential duty on unutilised goods from six months under the earlier rules to three months. And, simplify the procedures by doing away with permissions and prescribing only an intimation to the authorities.
These instructions and changes signify important steps towards overall ease of doing business.
Business Standard, New Delhi, 21st March 2016

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New income tax slab and rates for new tax regime FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) announced in Budget 2023

  Basic exemption limit has been hiked to Rs.3 lakh from Rs 2.5 currently under the new income tax regime in Budget 2023. Further, the income tax slabs in the new tax regime has been changed. According to the announcement, 5 income tax slabs will be there in FY 2023-24, from 6 income tax slabs currently. A rebate under Section 87A has been enhanced under the new tax regime; from the current income level of Rs.5 lakh to Rs.7 lakh. Thus, individuals opting for the new income tax regime and having an income up to Rs.7 lakh will not pay any taxes   The income tax slabs under the new income tax regime will now be as follows: Rs 0 to Rs 3 lakh - 0% tax rate Rs 3 lakh to 6 lakh - 5% Rs 6 lakh to 9 lakh - 10% Rs 9 lakh to Rs 12 lakh - 15% Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh - 20% Above Rs 15 lakh - 30%   The revised Income tax slabs under new tax regime for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25)   Income tax slabs under new tax regime Income tax rates under new tax regime O to Rs 3 lakh 0 Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh 5% Rs 6

Jaitley plans to cut MSME tax rate to 25%

Income tax for companies with annual turnover up to ?50 crore has been reduced to 25% from 30% in order to make Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) companies more viable and also to encourage firms to migrate to a company format. This move will benefit 96% or 6.67 lakh of the 6.94 lakh companies filing returns of lower taxation and make MSME sector more competitive as compared with large companies. However, bigger firms have shown their disappointment since the proposal for reducing tax rates was to make Indian firms competitive globally and it is the large firms that are competing globally. The Finance Minister foregone revenue estimate of Rs 7,200 crore per annum for this for this measure. Besides, the Finance Minister refrained from removing or reducing Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), a popular demand from India Inc., but provided a higher period of 15 years for carry forward of future credit claims, instead of the existing 10-year period. “It is not practical to rem

Don't forget to verify your income tax return in August: Here's the process

  An ITR return needs to be verified within 120 days of filing of tax return. Now that you have filed your income tax return, remember to verify it because your return filing process is not complete unless you do so. The CBDT has reduced the time limit of ITR verification to 30 days (from 120 days) from the date of return submission. The new rule is applicable for the returns filed online on or after 1st August 2022. E-verification is the most convenient and instant method for verifying your ITR. However, if you prefer not to e-verify, you have the option to verify it by sending a physical copy of the ITR-V. Taxpayers who filed returns by July 31, 2023 but forget to verify their tax returns, will get the following email from the tax department, as per ClearTax. If your ITR is not verified within 30 days of e-filing, it will be considered invalid, and may be liable to pay a Late Fee. Aadhaar OTP | EVC through bank account | EVC through Demat account | Sending duly signed ITR-V through s