ISLAMABAD (November 20 2002) : The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has rescinded over 100 individual duty drawback SROs during the last two months to revamp the duty drawback regime, official sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday.
These individuals-based SROs lost their effectiveness as either the raw materials were not used by the importers or finished products were not exported by the companies engaged in manufacturing and export.
A number of raw materials specified in the individual SROs have been included in the standard SROs for the benefit of entire business community.
In some cases, the units have stopped the import/export business, while others use standard SROs for importing raw materials.
Around 100 SROs have been rescinded in consultation with the Input Output Coefficient Organisation (IOCO), Karachi, and relevant importers during the past two months as a part of CBR's drive to bring the repayment of duty at par with the original custom duty paid at the import stage.
Presently, the CBR is making efforts to continuously rescind individual SROs and put emphasis on standardisation of the duty drawback, official sources added.
In the meantime, 'CBR quarterly review July-September 2002' has proposed new mechanism of duty drawback which has been termed as a paradigm shift in perception as well procedures so that a more efficient duty drawback system is evolved.
In case of Customs, the basic impediment in processing and disposal of rebate claims is that there is a lack of sufficient knowledge about the claims filed. At present there is no specified place for filing the rebate claim.
There is no unique reference number eg a machine number, which makes it difficult to keep track of what has been filed, when it is filed and to whom it pertains?
Furthermore, it is not possible to know while processing the claim, whether it was filed in time or whether somebody has just stamped it in the back date.
According to the proposed process, since application for refund is a prescribed customs document as per Section 33 of the Customs Act 1969, it may be entered into the system like Bill of Entry (BoE). The procedure of filing this document would be at the front office and as a single administrative document (SAD) for resolving the issue concerning proper identity of the document.
In a computerised environment, the refund application will appear as a job in hand at the concerned AC's terminal, the moment it is filed at the front office. The documents submitted along with the application will also be forwarded. Elaborate mechanism will be written in the software to handle these documents.
With this step the putting up mechanism will be eliminated and will become instantaneous. The process would leave 30 days for the sanctioning authority to decide the issue, unless there is a delay on the part of the claimant in responding to any hearing memo or filing of any missing documents, etc.
The system will be developed in a manner to resolve the issue of priority automatically. Once the job in hand is approached, the refund/ rebate claim is presented to the Assistant Collector's terminal in a Refund Processing Menu that will assist the officer.
The mechanism will compute from the date of filing (recorded when the claim is lodged in front office) and date of payment (available in system against the IGM/ EGM-Index) by comparing it with cash number. The claimant in his/her application will specify the date of payment in cases not relating to IGM/EGM-index.
Confirmation of payment: The system will confirm the payment of the amount claimed from the cash number.
The system will indicate the details of any refund claimed/granted against the same IGM/EGM-index if earlier claimed to avoid duplication.
The method will indicate if any amount is recoverable from the claimant so that the same may be adjusted.
Any notices for recovery against the claimant received from other collectorates/department will also be reflected, so that the same can be legally adjusted from the amount sanctioned.
All notifications, SROs, CGOs, Public Notices and Standing Orders will be available to the officer. If more documents from the claimant are needed, system generated Document Calling Memo or Hearing Notice will be issued. The references of such correspondence will be recorded in the system against the Refund Application's Record. Refund Sanction Order will be computer generated, which will be communicated to the claimant and to the Accounts Section.
