Central Bureau of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has notified the Customs (Waiver of Interest) Third Order, 2023. This order was notified on 17th April, 2023.
It may be recalled that by an order dated 6th April, 2023, CBIC had waived the whole of interest payable on failure to pay import duty within the specified time in terms of sub-section (2) of section 47 of the Customs Act, 1962.
This waiver applied for the period from 1st April, 2023 up to and including the 10th April, 2023. It applied in respect of goods, where the payment of import duty is to be made from the amount available in electronic cash ledger.
Subsequently, the CBIC has observed that errors are still occurring in the System sporadically thereby affecting the timely completion, by users, of sequential procedures. As a result, the interest also accumulates daily in the technical system.
Hence, to mitigate these hardships, the CBIC by an order dated 11th April, 2023 had waived the whole of interest payable under sub-section (2) of section 47 of the said Act, for the period from 11th April, 2023 up to and including the 13th April, 2023. This waiver was applied in respect of goods, where the payment of import duty is to be made from the amount available in electronic cash ledger.
CBIC has observed that the said technical difficulties have, to a large extent, been resolved by 13th April, 2023. However, in respect of certain Bills of Entry on which the duty payment process was initiated on or before 13th April, 2023, this process was not successful due to technical issues in the Common Portal leading to rejection coupled with an inability to re-initiate that payment from the electronic cash ledger at the Common Portal.
Hence, the CBIC is waiving the interest payable for the period from 14thApril, 2023 till the date of removal of such system inability and thereafter up to three days (including holidays), in respect of such goods relating to those Bills of Entry.
The waiver contained in this Order shall be given effect if the following conditions are fulfilled:
(a) the duty and interest has been paid within 3 days (including holidays) from the date of removal of such system inability at the Common Portal, which shall be certified by the DG Systems;
(b)the importer undertakes at the port of import to not pass on the incidence of such interest paid; and
(c) the provisions of section 27 of Customs Act 1962 shall govern the consequential refund of such interest paid
