[TO BE PUBLISHED IN
THE GAZETTE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY, PART II SECTION 3, SUB-SECTION (i)]
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE)
Notification No. 16/ 2015 – Customs
New
Delhi, the 1st April, 2015.
G.S.R. 252 (E) - In exercise of the powers conferred by
sub-section (1) of section 25 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962), the
Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest
so to do, hereby exempts goods specified in the Table 1 annexed hereto, from,-
(i)
the
whole of the duty of customs leviable thereon under the First Schedule to
the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975) (hereinafter referred to as the said
Customs Tariff Act), and
(ii)
the whole of the additional duty leviable
thereon under section 3 of the said Customs Tariff Act, when specifically
claimed by the importer.
2. The exemption under this notification
shall be subject to the following conditions, namely:-
(1) that the goods
imported are covered by a valid authorisation issued under the Export Promotion
Capital Goods (EPCG) Scheme in terms of Chapter 5 of the Foreign Trade Policy
permitting import of goods at zero customs duty;
(2) that the authorisation is registered at the port of import
specified in the said authorisation and the goods, which are specified in the
Table 1 annexed hereto, are imported within validity of the said authorisation and the said
authorisation is produced for debit by the proper officer of customs at the
time of clearance:
Provided
that the goods imported should not fall under clause (f) of paragraph 5.01 of
Foreign Trade Policy:
Provided
further that the catalyst for one subsequent charge shall be allowed, under the
authorisation in which plant, machinery or equipment and catalyst for initial
charge have been imported, except in cases where the Regional Authority issues
a separate authorisation for catalyst for one subsequent charge after the
plant, machinery or equipment and catalyst for initial charge have already been
imported;
(3) that
the importer is not issued, in the year of issuance of zero duty
EPCG authorisation, the duty credit scrips under the erstwhile Status Holder
Incentive Scrip (SHIS) scheme. In the case of applicant who is Common Service
Provider (herein after referred as CSP), the CSP or any of its specific users
should not be issued, in the year of issuance of the zero duty EPCG authorisation, the duty credit scrips under SHIS. This
condition shall not apply where already availed SHIS benefit that is unutilised is surrendered or where benefits availed under
SHIS that is utilised is refunded, with applicable
interest, before issue of the zero duty EPCG authorisation.
SHIS scrips which are surrendered or benefit refunded or not issued in a
particular year for the reason the authorisation has been issued in that year
shall not be issued in future years also;
(4)
that the goods imported
shall not be disposed of or transferred by sale or lease or any other manner
till export obligation is complete;
(5)
that the importer executes a bond in such
form and for such sum and with such surety or security as may be specified by
the Deputy Commissioner of Customs or Assistant Commissioner of Customs binding
himself to comply with all the conditions of this notification as well as to
fulfill export obligation on Free on Board (FOB) basis equivalent to six times
the duty saved on the goods imported as may be specified on the authorisation,
or for such higher sum as may be fixed or endorsed by the
Regional Authority in terms of Para 5.16 of
the Handbook of Procedures, within a
period of six years from the date of issue of Authorisation, in the following
proportions, namely :-
|
S.
No. |
Period from the
date of issue of Authorisation |
Proportion of total
export obligation |
|
(1) |
(2) |
(3) |
|
1. |
Block of 1st to
4th year |
Minimum 50% |
|
2. |
Block of 5th and
6th year |
Balance |
Provided that in case the authorisation is issued to a CSP, the CSP
shall execute the bond with bank guarantee and the bank guarantee shall be
equivalent to 100% of the duty foregone, and the bank guarantee shall be given
by CSP or by anyone of the users or a combination thereof, at the option of the
CSP:
Provided further that the export obligation shall be 75% of the normal
export obligation specified above when fulfilled by export of
following green technology products, namely, equipment for solar energy
decentralised and grid connected products, bio-mass gassifier,
bio-mass or waste boiler, vapour absorption chillers, waste heat boiler, waste
heat recovery units, unfired heat recovery steam generators, wind turbine,
solar collector and parts thereof, water treatment plants, wind mill and wind
mill turbine or engine, other generating sets - wind powered, electrically
operated vehicles – motor cars, electrically operated vehicles – lorries
and trucks, electrically operated vehicles – motor cycle
and mopeds, and solar cells:
Provided also that for units located in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,
Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura,
the export obligation shall be 25% of the normal export obligation
specified above:
Provided
also that where a sick unit holding EPCG
authorisation is notified by the Board for Industrial and Financial
Reconstruction (BIFR) or where a rehabilitation scheme is announced by the
concerned State Government in respect of sick unit holding EPCG authorisation for its revival, the
export obligation may be fulfilled within time period allowed by the
Regional Authority as per the rehabilitation package prepared by the operating
agency and approved by BIFR or rehabilitation department of State Government.
In cases where the time period is not specified in the rehabilitation package,
the export obligation may be fulfilled within the period specified in
paragraph 5.05 of the Foreign Trade Policy;
(6)
that if the importer does not claim
exemption from the additional duty leviable under section 3 of the Customs
Tariff Act, 1975, the additional duty so paid by him shall not be taken for
computation of the net duty saved for the purpose of fixation of export
obligation provided the Cenvat credit of additional duty paid has not been
taken;
(7)
that the importer, including a CSP, produces within 30 days from
the expiry of each block from the date of issue of authorisation or within such
extended period as the Deputy Commissioner of Customs or Assistant Commissioner
of Customs may allow, evidence to the satisfaction of the Deputy Commissioner
of Customs or Assistant Commissioner of Customs showing the extent of export
obligation fulfilled, and where the export obligation of any particular block
is not fulfilled in terms of the condition (5), the importer shall within three
months from the expiry of the said block pay duties of customs equal to an
amount which bears the same proportion to the duties leviable on the goods, but
for the exemption contained herein, which the unfulfilled portion of the export
obligation bears to the total export obligation, together with interest at the
rate of fifteen per cent. per annum from the date of
clearance of the goods;
(8) that
where the importer fulfills 75% or more of the export obligation
as specified in condition (5) [over and above 100% of the average export
obligation] within half of the period specified for export obligation as
mentioned in condition (5), his balance export obligation shall be
condoned and he shall be treated to have fulfilled the entire export obligation;
(9) that the capital goods imported, assembled or
manufactured, are installed and put to use, after their import, in the
importer’s factory or premises and a certificate from the jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner
of Central Excise or Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise or from an
independent Chartered Engineer, is produced within a period of six
months from the date of completion of imports before the Deputy Commissioner of
Customs or Assistant Commissioner of
Customs at the port of import confirming such installation and use of the capital goods
in the importer’s factory or premises:
Provided
that where the Regional Authority grants extension of the said period beyond six
months from the date of completion of imports, the said overall period shall be
extended by the Deputy Commissioner of Customs or Assistant Commissioner of
Customs as the case may be:
Provided further that
an importer (including an importer who is a CSP) registered with the Central
Excise opting for the independent Chartered Engineer’s certificate shall send a
copy of the certificate, upon its issuance, to the jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner
of Central Excise or Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise, as the case may
be, as intimation or record:
Provided also
that in case of import of spares, the installation certificate shall be
produced within three
years from the date of import:
Provided also that in the case of
manufacturer exporter and merchant exporter having supporting manufacturer(s)
or in the case of import of irrigation equipment for use in contract farming
for export of agricultural products or in the case of importer rendering
services, the capital goods may be installed at the factory or premises of such
other person whose name and address is endorsed, prior to installation, by the
Regional Authority on the authorisation referred to in condition (1). This
would apply even when Regional Authority endorses a change in the factory or
premises or person. The name and address of such other person shall also be
mentioned on the relevant shipping bills. This shall not apply to a CSP:
Provided also that agro units located in Agri Export Zones or service providers in Agri Export Zones may move the capital goods within the Agri Export Zones under intimation to the jurisdictional
Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise or Assistant Commissioner of Central
Excise, as the case may be, subject to the condition that the importer shall
maintain accurate record of such movement;
(10) that the imports and exports are undertaken through the seaports,
airports or through the inland container depots or through the land customs
stations as mentioned in the Table 2 annexed hereto or a Special
Economic Zone notified under section 4 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005
(28 of 2005):
Provided
that the Commissioner of Customs may, by special order or a public notice and
subject to such conditions as may be specified by him, permit import and export
through any other sea-port, airport, inland container depot or through a
land customs station within his jurisdiction;
(11)
that notwithstanding anything
contained in condition (5) above,
where the Regional Authority grants extension of block-wise period for any
block(s) or overall period of fulfillment of export obligation up to a period
of two years or regularization of shortfall in export obligation, not exceeding
five percent of such export obligation, the said block-wise period or overall
period of export obligation shall be extended or condoned by the Deputy
Commissioner of Customs or Assistant Commissioner of Customs, as the case may
be:
Provided
that in respect of sick units referred to in the fourth proviso to condition (5)
above, extension of overall period of export obligation shall not be allowed.
3. Where the goods specified in the Table
1 are found defective or unfit for use, the said goods may be re-exported back
to the foreign supplier within three years from date of clearance of said goods:
Provided
that at the time of re-export, the goods are identified to the satisfaction of
the Deputy Commissioner of Customs or Assistant Commissioner of Customs, as the
case may be, to be the same as the goods which were imported.
Explanation – For the purpose of this notification,-
(A) “Capital goods” has the same meaning as assigned to it in
paragraph 9.08 of the Foreign
Trade Policy;
(B) “Common Service Provider” (CSP)
means a service provider who is designated or certified as a Common Service
Provider by the Director General of Foreign Trade, Department of Commerce or
State Industrial Infrastructural Corporation in a Town of Export Excellence;
(C) “Export obligation”,-
(I)
means
obligation on the importer to export to a place outside India, goods
manufactured or capable of being manufactured or services rendered by the use
of capital goods imported in terms of this notification and the export obligation shall be over and
above the average level of exports achieved by the importer in the preceding
three licensing years for the same and similar products within the overall
export obligation period including the extended period, if any and such average
shall be the arithmetic mean of export performance in the last three years for
the same and similar products:
Provided that in case of export of goods
relating to handicraft, handlooms, cottage, tiny sector, agriculture, animal
husbandry, floriculture, horticulture, pisciculture,
viticulture, poultry, sericulture, carpet, coir and jute, the importer shall
not be required to maintain the average level of exports:
Provided also that in case of export of goods
relating to aquaculture (including fisheries), the importer shall not be
required to maintain the average level of exports subject to the condition that
EPCG authorisation has been obtained for goods other than fishing trawlers,
boats, ships and other similar items:
Provided also that the goods, excepting
tools, imported under this notification by the aforesaid sectors, shall not be
allowed to be transferred for a period of five years from the date of imports
even in cases where export obligation has been fulfilled:
Provided also that exports made to such
countries as notified by Director General of Foreign Trade, shall not be
counted for fixing the average level of exports:
Provided also that exports against only such
shipping bills which mention the authorisation number and date of the
authorisation shall be counted for the fulfillment of the export obligation:
Provided also that in the case of authorisation
issued to a CSP, -
(i)
the
reference to ‘importer’ in this Explanation shall be taken to mean a reference
to ‘CSP and specific users whose details are informed prior to export by CSP to
the Regional Authority’;
(ii)
for the exports by users
of the common service to be counted towards fulfilment of export obligation of
CSP, the respective shipping bills of the users of common service shall contain
the authorisation details of the CSP and the concerned Regional Authority shall
be informed about the details of the users prior to such export; and
(iii)
the
exports counted against the authorisation in terms of this notification shall
not be counted towards fulfillment of specific export obligations against all other authorisations issued
to the CSP or user under Chapter 5 of the Foreign Trade Policy, including
para 5.28 of Handbook of Procedures;
(II)
shall be fulfilled through physical exports
and the export proceeds realised in freely
convertible currency. However, the following categories of supplies, shall also
be counted towards fulfillment of export obligation:
(a)
deemed
exports, namely:
(i) supply of goods
against Advance Authorisation or Advance Authorisation for annual requirement
or Duty Free Import Authorisation Scheme;
(ii) supply
of goods to Export Oriented Units or Software Technology Parks or Electronic
Hardware Technology Parks or Biotechnology Park;
(iii) supply of goods to projects financed by
multilateral or bilateral agencies or funds as notified by Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance under International Competitive
Bidding (ICB) in accordance with the procedures of those agencies or funds,
where legal agreements
provide for tender evaluation without including customs duty;
(iv) supply and installation of goods
and equipment (single responsibility of turnkey contracts) to projects financed
by multilateral or bilateral agencies or funds as notified by Department of Economic Affairs,
Ministry of Finance under ICB in accordance with the
procedures of those agencies or funds, where bids may have been invited and
evaluated on the basis of Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) prices for goods
manufactured abroad;
(v) supply of goods to any project or purpose
in respect of which the Ministry of Finance, by Notification No.
12/2012-Customs dated 17-3-2012, as amended from time to time, permits
import of such goods at zero customs duty subject to conditions specified in
the said Notification and the supply is made under ICB procedure;
(vi) supply of goods required
for setting up of any of the mega power projects specified in the list 32A at
Sl. No. 507 of Notification No. 12/2012- Customs dated 17.03.2012, as amended
from time to time, provided the mega power project conforms to the threshold
generation capacity specified in the
said Notification. The supply should be made under ICB procedure. The
ICB condition shall not be mandatory if the requisite quantum of power has been
tied up through tariff based competitive bidding or if the project has been
awarded through tariff based competitive bidding;
(vii)
Supply of goods to nuclear power projects through National Competitive Bidding
(NCB) or through ICB as provided in clause(h) of para 7.02 of Foreign Trade
Policy:
(b) supply of ITA-1 items to Domestic Tariff Area, provided
realization is in free foreign exchange;
(c) royalty payments
received in freely convertible currency and foreign exchange received for
Research and Development (R&D) services; and
(d) payments received in Rupee
terms for such services as are specified in paragraph 5.04(h) of the Foreign
Trade Policy.
(D) "Foreign Trade Policy"
means the Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-2020, published by the Government of
India in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry vide notification No. 01/2015-2020, dated the 1st April
2015 as amended from time to time;
(E) “Handbook of
Procedures” means the Handbook of Procedures 2015-20 published by the
Government of India in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry vide public notice
No. 01/2015-2020, dated the 1st
April 2015 as amended from time to time;
(F) “Manufacture”
has the same meaning as defined in clause (f) of section 2 of the Central
Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944);
(G) “Regional
Authority” means the Director General of Foreign Trade appointed under section
6 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 (22 of 1992) or
an officer authorised by him to grant an
authorisation including a duty credit scrip under the said Act.
Table 1
|
S.
No. |
Description
of goods |
|
(1) |
(2) |
|
1. |
Capital goods for
pre-production, production and post-production |
|
2. |
Capital goods in
Semi Knocked Down (SKD) / Completely Knocked Down (CKD) conditions to be
assembled into capital goods by the importer |
|
3. |
Spare parts of goods specified at Serial Nos.1 and 2 as
actually imported and required for maintenance of capital goods so imported,
assembled, or manufactured |
|
4. |
Spare parts
required for the existing plant and machinery of the importer |
Table
2
|
S.No. |
Port, ICD, LCS |
Located at |
|
1. |
Seaports |
Bedi (including Rozi-Jamnagar), Chennai, Cochin, Dahej,
Dharamtar, Haldia (Haldia Dock complex of Kolkata port), Kakinada, Kandla, Kattupalli (Tamil Nadu),
Kolkata, Krishnapatnam, Ennore
(Tamil Nadu), Karaikal (Union territory of Puducherry), Magdalla, Mangalore, Marmagoa, Muldwarka, Mumbai, Mundra, Nagapattinam, Nhava Sheva, Okha, Paradeep, Pipavav, Porbander, Sikka, Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam and Vadinar.
|
|
2. |
Airports |
Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Dabolim (Goa), Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata,
Lucknow (Amausi), Mumbai,
Nagpur, Rajasansi (Amritsar), Srinagar, Trivandrum,
Varanasi and Visakhapatnam. |
|
3. |
Inland Container Depots |
Agra, Ahmedabad, Anaparthy (Andhra Pradesh), Melpakkam
Village (Arakkonam Taluk, Vellore District), Babarpur, Bengaluru, Bhadohi,
Bhatinda, Bhilwara, Bhiwadi, Bhusawal, Chettipalayam (Tamil Nadu), Chheharata
(Amritsar), Coimbatore, Dadri, Dappar
(Dera Bassi), Daulatabad (Wanjarwadi and Maliwada), Delhi, Dhannad Rau
(District Indore), Dighi (Pune), Durgapur (Export
Promotion Industrial Park), Faridabad, Garhi Harsaru, Gauhati, Guntur,
Hyderabad, Irugur Village (Tamil Nadu),
Irungattukottai (SIPCOT Industrial Park, Kattrambakkam
Village, Sriperumbudur Taluk,
Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu), Jaipur, Jallandhar, Jamshedpur, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Karur, Kheda (Pithampur, District Dhar),
Kota, Kundli, Loni
(District Ghaziabad), Ludhiana, Madurai, Malanpur, Mandideep (District Raisen), Marripalem Village (in Edlapadu
Taluk of District Guntur), Miraj, Moradabad,
Nagpur, Nasik, Patli (Gurgaon), Pimpri
(Pune), Pitampur (Indore), Pondicherry, Raipur, Rewari, Rudrapur (Nainital), Salem, Singanalur, Surat, Surajpur, Talegaon (District Pune), Thudiyalur
(Tamil Nadu), Tirupur, Tondiarpet (TNPM) in
Chennai, Tuticorin, Udaipur, Vadodara, Varanasi, Veerapandi (Tamil Nadu) and Waluj
(Aurangabad). |
|
4. |
Land Customs Stations |
Agartala, Amritsar Rail Cargo, Attari Road, Changrabandha, Dawki, Ghojadanga, Hilli, Jogbani, Mahadipur, Nepalganj Road, Nautanva (Sonauli), Petrapole, Ranaghat, Raxaul, Singhabad and Sutarkhandi. |
[F.No.605/55/2014-DBK]
(Sanjay Kumar)
Under Secretary to the Government of India