Guidelines to apply for MEIS under the System Driven approval mechanism for MEIS applications for shipping bills from EDI ports

Circular No.ES/ 208 /2018-19                                                     September 14, 2018

To: Members of the Council

Sub.: Guidelines to apply for MEIS under the System Driven approval mechanism for MEIS applications for shipping bills from EDI ports

Dear Member,

We would like to inform you that O/o DGFT has issued Trade Notice No. 30/2018-19 dated 11^th September, 2018 regarding Guidelines to apply for MEIS under the System Driven approval mechanism for MEIS applications for shipping bills from EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) ports.

To facilitate "Ease of doing business" measure, DGFT would be starting the process of system driven approval of the MEIS claim Applications from 13^th September, 2018 in respect of exports made through EDI shipping bills.

For the sake of convenience of the exporters/ MEIS applicants & Regional Authorities (RAs), DGFT has prescribed procedures/ guidelines which is given here-below:

1. The process of logging into the E-com module would be the same as before.

2. However, after entering the MEIS application window, the applicants would be prompted to select whether their MEIS claim is for Project Exports or not.

3. The applicants must tick the relevant box in case they wish to apply for MEIS under Project Exports benefits as per procedure given in Trade Notice 14 /2018-19 dated 30.05.2018.

4. These applications would be submitted, but would be processed at the DGFT HQs as informed vide the above Trade Notice.

5. The rest of the application process is same for EDI shipping bills. However, the applicants are being informed that the Online module would not accept the submission of the MEIS application in case of the following –

• The applicant firm (IEC) is in Denied Entity List/ Suspended IEC/ Cancelled IEC.

• The applicant's RCMC is not valid as on date of application.

• The application is not made as per para 3.06 (a) of HBP 2015-20 under which the applicants are required to submit MEIS application for one financial year in one Jurisdictional Regional office.

For example : If an exporter has chosen RA Chennai for claiming rewards for exports made in 2017-18, then all claims for exports made in 2017-18, irrespective of the date of application shall be made to RA Chennai only. Date of export shall be reckoned as per criteria specified in Para 9.12 ofHBP

• The shipping bills, already attached in any of the earlier applications and later disallowed for any reason whatsoever, would not be allowed to be accepted again under the new MEIS module w.e.f. 13.09.2018. Such shipping bills need to be re-activated before filing claims.

• For reactivation of disallowed Shipping Bills, Shipping Bills of Cancelled Scrips and Rejected Applications, a request letter has to be sent after examination of the issue by RA to the EDI Division, DGFT HQ with a copy to NIC DGFT HQ, quoting the File No, Shipping Bill Number, Shipping Bill Date and Shipping Bill Port.

6. The applicants must select the mode of dispatch of the duty credit scrip. i.e, whether they want to collect the MEIS scrip in person from the Counter of the  Jurisdictional RA of DGFT or wish to have the scrip sent to them by post at the address specified. This choice needs to be necessarily filled in by the applicants in the online module. 

7. After submission, the Online Module would segregate the applications into Manual (non-automated) and automated applications.

8. The applications in which all shipping bills meet the following requirements would be approved by the system automatically at the end of submission process.

• Shipping Bills from EDI PORT — Please note that SEZ shipping bills are non EDI port shipping bills for this system.
• Shipping Bills having Let Export date on or after 01.01.2017.
• No shipping Bill under the application should have any of the ITC(HS) codes as listed in Annexures to PN 62 dated 16.02.2018 and PN 13 dated 12.06.2018.
• MEIS applications with Total Claim value of less than Rs.2 Crore.

9. The system approved MEIS applications would be available for printing at the regional offices of DGFT and would be authenticated (attested). Scrips shall be dispatched as per option selected by the applicant.

10. Please note that all kind of MEIS applications, except as in (point 7) above would continue to be processed in the RAs as per the current practice through the non-automated procedure.

Members are requested to make a note of the above procedures.  

Thanking You,

Yours faithfully,

S.BALARAJU
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR