Weekly Newsletter From Chairman, CBIC Dated 17/05/2021

Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
North Block, New Delhi-110001
Tel. No.: +91-11-23092849, Fax : +91-11-23092890
E-mail : ajit.m@gov.in

M. Ajit Kumar, Chairman

Date: 17^th May 2021

D.O.No.68/CH(IC)/2020

Dear colleague

This week poses yet another challenge to us as states along the Arabian coast brace to face the force of the very severe cyclonic storm `Tauktae’. I had alerted the Chiefs of the Zones likely to be affected by the Cyclone, to take precautionary measures. I hope all measures have been put in place for safety of officers and staff as well as their families and for providing assistance to those in need while preventing any damage to port equipment and vessels including Customs Boats. Zonal Chiefs and other senior officers must remain alert and take necessary action. If you happen to reside in the region, do take precautions.

As a part of taxpayer facilitation, we have automated most of our refund/ drawback processes and amounts due to the taxpayers, especially of IGST that get automatically processed and credited without human intervention. With 2/3 of exports being made under the Letter of Undertaking (LUT) scheme, it has emerged as the preferred scheme for export as compared to the IGST refund scheme. Hence, timely payments to the taxpayers are ensured. However there are certain areas where amounts may be blocked mainly due to data entry mistakes made by the taxpayers or in rare cases due to technical glitches. Some amounts may also be pending due to risk-based rules. To ensure liquidity to our stakeholders particularly from the MSME sectors, a special refund/ drawback drive has been launched from 15th May to 31St May, 2021 . Suitable instructions have been issued both on Customs and GST fronts by the respective policy wings of CBIC. The concerned officers and staff in the zones should use this period to revisit individual issues and handhold the trade so as to ensure that legitimate taxpayers get their dues. It may interest you to know that from Pt July, 2017 to 31st March, 2021 (45 months), the total IGST refund disbursed to the exporters is Rs. 1,99,576 crores, involving 1.03 lakh exporters. By this we have settled 97.5% of the claims made. For the statistically inclined, this amounts to the disbursement of an average of Rs. 4,435 crores as IGST refund per month.

On the duty-evasion front, it is heartening to note that the SIIB (Import), Nhava Sheva, acting on inputs from NCTCC, Mumbai, regarding evasion of anti-dumping duty on tyre curing presses, have recovered Rs. 5.6 crore from an importer. Similarly, Circle-3, Customs (Audit) Commissionerate, Delhi, in the month of April, 2021, detected short payment of Customs Duties of more than Rs. 14 crores by mis-classification of E-Rickshaw parts. On the GST side, the Surat Zonal Unit of DGGI on 13t^h May 2021 have prima facie made a detection of fake ITC case of almost Rs. 95 crore involving 34 firms across 8 States by using the home grown IT tool `Netra’. Congratulations to the officers concerned for their alertness in these difficult times thereby preventing a loss to the exchequer.

While we are deeply pained by the loss of a number of members of our fraternity, what shines through is the selfless work being done by many of our colleagues in extending succour to fellow officers and their families in their time of need. I have been spoken to by many officers, some of them retired, about the personal care and assistance being rendered by Shri G. Narayanaswamy, Commissioner, and his team of dedicated officers and staff, under the mentorship of the Pr. Chief Commissioner, Shri Nagendra Kumar, in Karnataka, and especially in Bengaluru which has been one of the worst-hit cities. Retired officers and their families have in particular been deeply touched by their concern and the help extended to them. The work under the ‘Mask India-Protect India’ initiative and ‘D3’ project involving our own officers who are qualified doctors attending to the medical needs of those affected, have been highly appreciated and has become a best practice for formations elsewhere to emulate.

During discussions with Zonal Chiefs and others, the names of many other officers and staff have come to notice who are rendering yeoman service to the needy and to the trade in this difficult hour. A few such names are Shri Nadig Vishwas, Deputy Director at Hyderabad; Shri Ramesh B. Vajge, Assistant Commissioner, Shri G. N. Srinivas, Superintendent, Shri Anil Gandi, Superintendent and Shri Narendra Janardan Gharat, Driver at Mumbai; Shri S. Senthilvelan, Superintendent, Shri P. Paul Sudhakar, Superintendent and Shri E. Madhusudhan, Superintendent at Chennai; Shri Rohit Chauhan, Superintendent, Shri Deepanshu Gupta, SIO, Shri Neeraj Agarwal, SIO, Shri L. K. Pathak, ACO, Shri Satendra Veer Singh, 10, Shri Mohit Dhankad, IO in Delhi etc. What has stood out is their commitment to the welfare of their fellow officers beyond the call of duty. The self-help groups constituted by the zones/ directorates are also doing a fantastic job in the forefront of humanitarian aid and assistance, working day and night to take care of their fellow officers and their families. I am deeply aware that there are many more such officers and groups with many more stories of their selfless work at their own personal risk in all our formations. I would be interested in knowing about them and their efforts. Each one of them, has lit a candle spreading the light of compassion and bringing the warmth of comfort to people in isolation. They bring out the best in humanity, and our collective appreciation goes out to each one of them.

Do continue to take care.

Yours sincerely

(M.Ajit Kumar)

To,

All Officers and Staff of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Custom