Notification Detail :
Representations have been received from field formations requesting clarification regarding amendments made in the Special Economic Zone Rules, 2006 by way of inserting a new Rule 47 (5) brought vide Department of Commerce (DoC) Notification No. GSR 772(E) dated 05.08.2016 wherein functional operations like Refund, Demand, Adjudication, Review and Appeal are to be made by jurisdictional Customs and Central Excise authorities in accordance with the relevant provisions contained in the Customs Act, 1962 & Central Excise Act, 1994 and the Finance Act, 1994.
2. Doubts have been raised regarding operationalization of these functions, appropriate authority and time limitation in respect of these functional operations, especially refund claims filed prior to the date of coming into effect of the said notification, i.e. 05.08.2016. It has been further asked to clarify as to who would be the appropriate authority, the Development Commissioner or the jurisdictional Customs Authority to raise demand of duty, if need arises, in respect of un-utilized capital goods/raw materials by a unit in case it exits/ opts out of the SEZ.
3. Matter has been examined by the Board. The following clarification is accordingly issued in this regard. 3.1 With regard to whether these functional operations of refund, demand, adjudication etc. are to be handled prospectively or retrospectively, it is a settled law that unless, otherwise expressed specifically for retrospective application in the notification itself, all notifications are applicable prospectively only. Therefore, all new cases of refund, demand, adjudication, review and appeal are to be made by the concerned jurisdictional authorities of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax under the provisions of the respective Acts. Also, with the coming into effect of the GST laws in the near future, apart from jurisdictional Customs Commissionerates, the jurisdictional GST Commissionerates will be responsible in respect of these functional operations with effect from the day GST is rolled out. 3.2 The standard operating procedures in respect of these functional operations would be as provided in the table below:
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