Central Excise duties to be taken over by the Principal Commissioner of Customs

The Dollar Business Bureau

With the implementation of GST, the Customs Board has decided to reorganise the Customs functions which were previously handled by the Central Excise department. In this context it has been decided that in respect to supplies made by Domestic Tariff Area or Domestic Tariff Zone (DTA) unit to Special Economic Zone (SEZ) units or developers and where the SEZ unit or developer issues a disclaimer to the DTA supplier and drawback is claimed by the DTA supplier, the drawback going forward shall be processed and paid by the Principal Commissioner of Customs or Commissioner of Customs/Customs (Preventive) under whose jurisdiction the DTA occurs.

Earlier the same was disbursed by the Central Excise Commissionerate under whose jurisdiction the manufacturing unit of the DTA existed. The same has been conveyed by a notification number 24/2017 Customs, issued by the Ministry of Finance on June 30, prior to the release of the GST.

Along with the change in the above responsibilities, the fixation of Brand rate in case of supplies from DTA to SEZ Unit or developer, if required, shall also be done by the office of said Principal Commissioner/Commissioner. This shall apply to all fresh applications/claims filed from July 1, 2017 onwards.

The pending applications or claims with the Central Excise department shall be transferred to the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs. The government has requested in this regard that the transfer of the documents is done with utmost care in coordination with the Customs authorities.

Going forward the Central Excise officers have been designated as Customs Officers and accordingly till the time jurisdictional Commissionerates of Customs, which will replace Central Excise Commissionerates hitherto performing Customs functions, are notified and become functional, the jurisdictional Central Excise Commissionerates shall continue to discharge Customs functions as required under the Drawback Rules, 1995.