Circular No.ES/6/2020-21 2nd April, 2020
To: Members of the Council
Sub.: Extension of Hand Book of Procedures 2015-2020 till 31.03.2021
Dear Member,
We would like to inform you that O/o DGFT has issued Public Notice No.67/2015-20 dated 31st March, 2020 regarding extension of HandBook of Procedures 2015-2020 till 31st March, 2021.
DGFT hereby makes the following amendments in HBP 2015-20 regarding extension of the validity of existing HBP, extension in the export obligation period for EPCG/ Advance Authorizations, extension of validity period Status Certificate, extension in the date of filing various applications/ returns etc. with immediate effect (Relevant extract of Public Notice is given)-
In para 1.01 the Hand Book of Procedure “shall remain in force until 31st March, 2020” is substituted by the phrase “shall remain in force upto 31st March, 2021.”
In para 2.55 of Recognition as Pre-shipment Inspection Agency (PSIA) and issuance of Pre- shipment Certificate (PSIC), the following sentence is added at the end:
(d) The recognized PSIAs will be notified under Appendix 2G for a period of three years. At the end of 3 years PSIA has to make a fresh application for further recognition. “However, any recognition which has extended validity upto 31st March,2020 or original validity upto 29th June, 2020, would deem to be valid upto 30th June, 2020.”
The following sentence is added at the end of Para 3.15 (a) of Last date of filing of application for Duty Credit Scrips:
(a) Application for obtaining Duty Credit Scrip under MEIS shall be filed within a period of :
(i) Twelve months from the Let Export (LEO) date or
(ii) Three months from the date of :
(1) Uploading of EDI shipping bills onto the DGFT server by Customs.
(2) Printing/ release of shipping bills for Non EDI shipping bills.
which ever is later, in respect of shipments for which claim is being filed.
“However with respect to para 3.15 (a) (i) above, for the shipping bills where the Let Export (LEO) date falls during the period 01.02.2019 to 31.05.2019,applications may be filed within a period of 15 months instead of 12 months.”
The following phrase is added after the word ‘filed’ appearing at the end of para 3.20 (a) regarding validity of status certificate:
(a) Status Certificates issued under this FTP shall be valid for a period of 5 years from the date on which application for recognition was filed “Or 31.03.2021, whichever is later.”.
In para 4.12 (vi) regarding Entitlement, the date “31.03.2020”as appearing in the first sentence is substituted by “31.03.2021.”
4.12 regarding Entitlement-
Maximum CIF value of one or more authorisations to be issued under paragraph 4.07 of Hand Book of Procedures shall be as under:
(vi) Norms ratified by any Norms Committee (NC) in the O/o DGFT on or after 01.04.2015 in respect of any Advance authorization obtained under paragraph 4.07 shall be valid for the entire period of the Foreign Trade Policy i.e. up to 31.03.2021 or for a period of three years from the date of ratification, whichever is later. Since all decisions of the Norm Committees are available in the form of minutes on the DGFT website, all other applicants of Advance Authorization are also eligible to apply and get their authorizations based on such ratified norms on repeat basis during validity of these norms.
The following sub-para is added after the para 4.41 (d) regarding Validity period for import and Revalidation of Authorisation:
“(e) For all Advance Authorisations where the validity for import is expiring between 01.02.2020 and 31.07.2020, the validity stands automatically extended by six months from the date of expiry. No separate amendment/ endorsement is required on the authorisations. The option to avail further validity extensions under this para would remain available for these authorisations as per eligibility.”
The following sub-para is added after the para 4.42 (h) regarding Export Obligation (EO) Period and its Extension :
“(i) For all Advance Authorisations where the Export Obligation Period is expiring between 01.02.2020 and 31.07.2020, the Export Obligation Period stands automatically extended by six months from the date of expiry. No separate application with composition fee, amendment or endorsement is required for this purpose. The option to avail further validity extensions under this para beyond this period would remain available for these authorisations as per eligibility.”
In para 4.95 (k) (a) regarding Procedure to apply for the Scheme for Rebate of State and Central Levies and Taxes (RoSCTL), the last date for filing online claims is amended to read as 31.12.2020 in place of 30.06.2020.
(k) Last date of filing of application for Duty Credit Scrips: The applications for shipping bills
(a) For shipping bills with LEO date from 07.03.2019 to 31.12.2019, the last date for filing online claims will be 30.12.2020.
In para 5.04 (a) regarding Certificate of Installation of Capital Goods), after the first sentence, the following sentence is inserted:
“However, in case the period of six months expiring during 1st February, 2020 to 31st July, 2020, the period for submission of Installation Certificate is extended by further 6 months from the original due date.”
After para 5.14 (d) regarding Block-wise Fulfillment of EO), the following sub-para is added:
“(e ) However, for the authorisations covered under para 5.14 (a), (c ) and (d), if the block wise export obligation period expires during 1st February, 2020 to 31st July, 2020, such period is deemed to be automatically extended by further 6 months from the date of such expiry.”
After para 5.17 (d) regarding Extension in Export Obligation Period, the following sub-para is added:
“(e ) However, for the authorisations covered under para 5.17 (a), (b) and (c ), if the export obligation period expires during 1st February, 2020 to 31st July, 2020, such period is deemed to be automatically extended by further 6 months from the date of such expiry.”
In para 6.01 (b) (ii)regarding Application / Approval / Renewal of approval, after the sentence “Further extension, if necessary,will be granted by the Board of Approval”,the following sentence is inserted:
(ii) On approval, a Letter of Permission (LoP) / Letter of Intent (LoI) shall be issued by DC / designated officer to EOU/ EHTP / STP / BTP unit. LoP /LoI shall have an initial validity of 2 years to enable the Unit to construct the plant & install the machinery and by this time the unit should have commenced production. In case the unit is not able to commence production in initial validity of 2 years, an extension of one year may be given by the DC for valid reasons to be recorded in writing. Subsequent extension of one year may be given by the Unit Approval Committee subject to condition that two thirds of activities including construction, relating to the setting up of the Unit are complete and Chartered Engineer‟s certificate to this effect is submitted by the Unit. Further extension, if necessary, will be granted by the Board of Approval. “All such LOPs/ LOIs whose original or extended validity expires on or after 1st March, 2020, may be deemed to be valid up to 31st December, 2020.” Once unit commences production, LoP / LoI issued shall be valid for a period of 5 years for its activities. This period may be extended further by DC for a period of 5 years at a time.
In para 7.05 (a) regarding Frequency of application and time period for claiming TED / Drawback), the following sentence is inserted after sentence number 2:
(a) In respect of supplies covered in Paragraphs 7.02 (a) to (d) of FTP 2015-20, application for TED refund / drawback (whichever applicable) may be filed within 12 months from the date of realisation of 100% payment against such supplies. In cases where payment is received in advance and supply is made subsequently, in such cases application can be filed within 12 months from the last date of such supplies. “In all such cases where the above dates fall on or after 1st March, 2020, the date of filing of applications for refund of TED/Drawback may be deemed to be extended up to 30th September, 2020.” Claim can be filed ‘Invalidation Letter / ARO wise’ against individual Authorisation within the time limit as specified above.
In para 9.02 (d) regarding Late Cut, the following sentence is added at the end:
“Last date of submission of application, for the purpose of late cut, would be taken as that extended vide Public Notice No.67/2015-20 dated 31st March, 2020.”
B. In the Appendices & Aayat Niryat Forms:
(i) In clause 6 of Appendix-6E, the following sentence is added at the end:
“QPR for quarters ending March, 2020 and June, 2020 and APR for Financial year ending on 31.03.2020 can be filed up to 30th September, 2020.”
(ii) In clause 6 (A) of Appendix 6E, the following sentence is added at the end:
“Monthly reports for months ending February, 2020 to June, 020 can be filed up to 31st July, 2020”.
(iii) In clause (viii) of Appendix 6H, the following sentence is added at the end:
“However, for the claims of quarters ending 30th September and 31st December, 2019, the
last date for filing applications for refund of CST is extended up to 30th September, 2020.”
Members may kindly make a note of the above amendments.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
S. BALARAJU
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
