The New Delhi Bench of the Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal ( CESTAT ) ruled that the benefit under drawback and Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies ( ROSCTL ) scheme cannot be denied due to procedural lapse as under the Central Board of Excise and Customs ( CBEC ) Circular.
Challenging the Order-in-Original, the appellant has preferred this appeal, being aggrieved by rejection of their application for conversion of Shipping Bills from Drawback ( Scheme Code 19 ) to Drawback and ROSCTL ( Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies ) SB ( Scheme Code 60 ).
The case of the appellant is that due to clerical error on the part of their Customs Broker, the said Shipping Bills was filed under the Drawback Scheme ( Code 19 ) in place of Drawback and ROSCTL Scheme ( Code 60 ), though for claiming ROSCTL scheme, the appellant had marked Y.
The clerical error caused by the Customs Broker came to notice on 18.01.2021 while filing for license with DGFT, it appears that the appellant sent the application (soft copy as well as hard copy) along with the supporting documents on 21.01.2021 to Centralise Export Assessment Cell at Mumbai erroneously in terms of the Public Notice No. 88/2017 dated 05.07.2017 issued by the Commissioner of Customs, NS-IV, JNCH, Nhava Sheva which provided that all such matters shall be dealt with by Centralise Export Assessment Cell situated at Mumbai.
The Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies ( ROSCTL ) was introduced with effect from 07.03.2019 replacing the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme ( MEIS ) by virtue of the Public Notice No. 58/2015-2020 dated 29.01.2020, thereby up to 07.03.2019 the benefit of Drawback scheme was available along with MEIS Scheme and after the withdrawal of MEIS Scheme, the benefit of Drawback Scheme was available with ROSCTL, with effect from 07.03.2019.
A Two-Member Bench comprising Binu Tamta, Member ( Judicial ) and P.V. Subba Rao, Member (Technical) observed that “In the facts of the present case, we find that the export goods is not in dispute and therefore, the entitlement of the appellant to claim the benefit under the scheme is clearly admissible and the same cannot be denied on account of any procedural lapse as provided in the circular. We also find that the examination level of Drawback Scheme and that of Drawback along with ROSCTL Scheme is the same and therefore, there is no reason to deny the benefit of the scheme.”
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