Cenvat Credit on CVD

Rashmi (CA) (108 Points)

18 September 2008  

 We are importer of Computer Hardwares. We pay following duties of cutoms on value of the imports.

 

Counter vailing duty

Additional duty of custom

Duty handling fee

Education cess

S.tax 12.00 %

Education cess 2.00%

Higher education cess 1.00%

 

We sell these products in India after charging VAT on the same. We also provide services in connection to installation of these components to the client and charge separately for that alongwith Service tax.

 

We want to know that Can we claim the benefit of any of the above custom duties paid against the service tax and if yes, under which head?

 

We have also come to know that we can pass on the benefit to claim the CVD to the customer if we raise the CENVATable invoice. This invoice can be raised only if we are registered under Central Excise Act as ‘First Stage Dealer’. Please let us know the procedure of registration and implications of the registration. What all are the records that we need to maintain if we register as First Stage dealer? What are the other related rules for ‘First Stage Dealers’? and what other benefits/disadvantages are there? What all returns are required to be filed after registration?

 

Can my customer claim CVD back in cash or he can take only set-off against the excise duty/service tax? Do we need to disclose the original import invoice to our customers? If he customer is in SEZ who does not have any duty liability, can he claim the CVD back in cash?

 

Is there any other way, such as at the time of importing we can directly endorse the invoice in the name of customer and he can claim CVD back?

 

If the Hardware Components purchased by the customer is capitalized by the customer, then what is the accounting treatment he should do? Can he claim depreciation benefit on the whole amount of capital purchase? And claim duty ?

 

Does he have to claim duty in phases over 2 years (i.e. 1st year 50% and rest in 2nd year?)

 

Is there any other harm in claiming duty back, such as if we do not claim the benefit of credit, we get depreciation deduction under income tax @ 33.99% of depreciation amount?

 

Is there any duty of custom that we/our customer can claim back? What is the rationale behind giving back this credit by the government?