Friday, 1 April 2022

Government extends tenure of Foreign Trade Policy and the benefit of exemption to EOUs and others

 This Tax Alert summarizes a recent Notification and Public Notice [1] issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) extending Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020 (FTP) by further six months.

The validity of FTP and Handbook of Procedures (HBP) was earlier extended from time to time till 31 March 2022.

Vide recent notification and public notice, the validity of FTP and HBP is further extended by six months i.e., from 31 March 2022 to 30 September 2022. The validity of status certificate expiring on 31 March 2022 is also extended till 30 June 2022.

Further, Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs (CBIC) has also extended the exemption from payment of integrated tax and compensation cess on imports made under Advance Authorisation (AA) and Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme from 31 March 2022 to 30 June 2022 [2].

A similar extension is also given for imports made by Export Oriented Units, Electronic Hardware Technology Parks, Software Technology Parks and Bio-Technology Parks [3]

Government has also made the provisions of section 51A of Customs Act, 1962 effective from 1 June 2022. The said provision was inserted vide Finance Act, 2018 and deals with electronic cash ledger which can be used for payment of duty, interest penalty, fee and any other amount payable under Customs. Further, Customs (Electronic Cash Ledger) Regulations, 2022 has also been prescribed in this regard [4].

 

[1] Notification no. 64/2015-2020 and Public Notice no. 53/2015-2020 dated 31 March 2022

[2] Notification no. 19/2022 - Customs dated 31 March 2022

[3] Notification no. 18/2022 – Customs dated 31 March 2022

[4] Ministry of Finance notification no. [F. No. 442/02/2017-Cus IV (Pt)] and CBIC Notification no. 19 and 20/2022-Customs (NT) dated 30 March 2022

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