Union Budget 2015 — Changes in Central Excise and Customs

The Finance Min­is­ter has intro­duced the Finance Bill, 2015 in Lok Sab­ha today, i.e., 28th Feb­ru­ary, 2015. Changes in Cus­toms and Cen­tral Excise law and rates of duty have been pro­posed through the Finance Bill, 2015 (claus­es 80 to 89, 163, 164 for Cus­toms and claus­es 90 to 104, 163, 164, 184 and 188 for Cen­tral Excise). In order to pre­scribe effec­tive rates of duty and to car­ry out changes in the Rules made under the respec­tive Acts, the fol­low­ing noti­fi­ca­tions are being issued: 

CUSTOMS Noti­fi­ca­tion Nos. Date
Tar­iff No.6/2015-Customs to No.11/2015-Customs 1st March, 2015
Non-Tar­iff No.27/2015-Customs (NT) 1st March, 2015
CENTRAL EXCISE
Tar­iff No.5/2015-CE to No.17/2015-CE 1st March, 2015
Non-Tar­iff No.3/2015-CE (NT) to No.11/2015-CE (NT) 1st March, 2015
CLEAN ENERGY CESS
No.1/2015-Clean Ener­gy Cess 1st March, 2015
M&TP ACT
No.1/2015‑M&TP 1st March, 2015

Unless oth­er­wise stat­ed, all changes in rates of duty take effect from the mid­night of 28th Feb­ru­ary / 1st March, 2015. A dec­la­ra­tion has been made under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931 in respect of claus­es 89, 90, 103, 104, 163, 164 and 188 of the Finance Bill, 2015 so that changes pro­posed there­in take effect from the mid­night of 28th Feb­ru­ary / 1st March, 2015. The remain­ing leg­isla­tive changes would come into effect only upon the enact­ment of the Finance Bill, 2015. Ret­ro­spec­tive amend­ment in the noti­fi­ca­tion issued under the Cen­tral Excise Act shall have the force of law only upon the enact­ment of the Finance Bill, 2015 but with effect from the date indi­cat­ed in the rel­e­vant clause or Sched­ule. These dates may be care­ful­ly noted.

2. Impor­tant changes in respect of Cus­toms and Cen­tral Excise duty and leg­isla­tive changes are con­tained in the four Annex­es append­ed to this letter:

(i) Annex I con­tains Chap­ter wise changes relat­ing to Customs;

(ii) Annex II con­tains Chap­ter wise changes relat­ing to Cen­tral Excise:

Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess levi­able on all excis­able goods are being ful­ly exempt­ed. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, the stan­dard ad val­orem rate of duty of excise (i.e. CENVAT) is being increased from 12% to 12.5%. Details of the con­se­quen­tial changes are enlist­ed in the afore­said Annex.

Also, max­i­mum speed of pack­ing machine for pack­ages of noti­fied goods of var­i­ous retail sale prices is being spec­i­fied as a fac­tor rel­e­vant to pro­duc­tion for deter­min­ing excise duty payable under the Com­pound­ed Levy Scheme present­ly applic­a­ble to pan masala, gutkha and chew­ing tobac­co. The deemed pro­duc­tion and duty payable per machine per month are accord­ing­ly being noti­fied in respect of these goods with ref­er­ence to the speed range in which the max­i­mum speed of a pack­ing machine for pack­ages of var­i­ous retail sale prices falls. Con­se­quen­tial amend­ments are being car­ried in the Pan Masala Pack­ing machines (Capac­i­ty Deter­mi­na­tion and Col­lec­tion of Duty) Rules, 2008 and Chew­ing Tobac­co and Unman­u­fac­tured Tobac­co Pack­ing Machines (Capac­i­ty Deter­mi­na­tion and Col­lec­tion of Duty) Rules, 2010 to enable the AC / DC, as the case may be, to re-deter­mine the annu­al capac­i­ty of pro­duc­tion for the peri­od 1st March, 2015 onwards with­in 3 work­ing days of the com­ing into force of the Pack­ing machines (Capac­i­ty Deter­mi­na­tion and Col­lec­tion of Duty) Amend­ment Rules, 2015 and Chew­ing Tobac­co and Unman­u­fac­tured Tobac­co Pack­ing Machines (Capac­i­ty Deter­mi­na­tion and Col­lec­tion of Duty) Amend­ment Rules, 2015. Details of changes in this regard enlist­ed in the afore­said Annex may be stud­ied carefully.

(iii)Annex III con­tains the clar­i­fi­ca­tions being issued on cer­tain matters.

(iv) Annex IV pro­vides a bird’s eye view of leg­isla­tive changes pro­posed in the Finance Bill, 2015.

2.1 The Annex­es pro­vide a sum­ma­ry of the changes made and should not be used in any qua­si-judi­cial or judi­cial pro­ceed­ings, where only the rel­e­vant legal texts need to be referred to.

2.2 I would also like to bring to your notice that it is quite like­ly that a com­mod­i­ty may be cov­ered under more than one noti­fi­ca­tion attract­ing dif­fer­ent rates of duties. In such cas­es, as per var­i­ous judi­cial pro­nounce­ments on the sub­ject, the ben­e­fit of low­er rate of duty can­not be denied to the assessee pro­vid­ed he ful­fils the con­di­tions pre­scribed, if any, for such low­er rate.

3. In order to achieve a sharp­er focus, I have allud­ed only to the key high­lights of the bud­getary changes in this com­mu­ni­ca­tion. The details are con­tained in the Finance Bill and noti­fi­ca­tions which alone have legal force. My team and I have made every pos­si­ble effort to avoid the occur­rence of errors or mis­takes in the Bud­get doc­u­ments. How­ev­er, giv­en the scale of changes, inad­ver­tent errors can­not be ruled out. I shall be grate­ful if the pro­vi­sions of the Finance Bill and noti­fi­ca­tions are stud­ied care­ful­ly and feed­back on issues that may need clar­i­fi­ca­tion is pro­vid­ed urgently.

4. It may kind­ly be ensured that the changes are imple­ment­ed in a smooth man­ner with­out caus­ing any incon­ve­nience to the tax­pay­ers and oth­er stake­hold­ers. All pos­si­ble efforts may be made to guide the tax­pay­ers by hold­ing inter­ac­tive sessions/ sem­i­nars for their ben­e­fit. In case of any doubt or dif­fi­cul­ty, I would request you to kind­ly bring it to my notice imme­di­ate­ly or to the notice of Sh. Amitabh Kumar, OSD (TRU) (Tel No.011–23092236); Sh. G.G. Pai, Direc­tor (TRU) (Tel No. 011–23092753), e‑mail: giridhar.pai@nic.in or Sh. Malay Samir, Bud­get Offi­cer (TRU) (Tel No. 011–23094819), e‑mail: malay.samir@nic.in. We can also be reached at budget-cbec@nic.in.

5. Copies of Finance Bill, 2015, Finance Minister’s Bud­get Speech, Explana­to­ry Mem­o­ran­dum to the Bill, rel­e­vant noti­fi­ca­tions can be down­loaded direct­ly from www.indiabudget.nic.in as well as www.cbec.gov.in.

6. To con­clude, my team and I would like to express my grat­i­tude to you for the valu­able sug­ges­tions, feed­back and sup­port and would look for­ward to your comments/ suggestions.

With warm regards,                                                                                                      Yours sincerely,

(Alok Shuk­la)

Joint Sec­re­tary (TRU‑I)

To,

All Prin­ci­pal Chief Com­mis­sion­ers / Prin­ci­pal Direc­tors General

All Chief Com­mis­sion­ers / Direc­tors General

All Prin­ci­pal Commissioners,

All Com­mis­sion­ers

Direc­tor DPPR/ Logistics/Legal Affairs/ Data Management.

ANNEX I

CUSTOMS

Chap­ter 1 to 24: No change

Chap­ter 25:

1) Basic Cus­toms Duty on ulex­ite ore is being reduced from 2.5% to Nil. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.113A] refers.

Chap­ter 26:

1) Export duty on ilmenite, upgrad­ed (ben­e­fi­ci­at­ed ilmenite includ­ing ilmenite ground) is being reduced from 5% to 2.5%. S.No.24D of noti­fi­ca­tion No.27/2011-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2011 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.8/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

Chap­ter 27:

1) The tar­iff rate of Basic Cus­toms Duty on Bitu­mi­nous coal [2701 12 00] is being reduced from 55% to 10%. A suit­able amend­ment has been pro­posed in the Cus­toms Tar­iff Act, 1975. Clause 89 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. How­ev­er, the effec­tive rate of Basic Cus­toms Duty on Bitu­mi­nous coal con­tin­ues to be 2.5%.

2) Basic Cus­toms Duty on met­al­lur­gi­cal coke [2704 00] is being increased from 2.5% to 5%. S.No.125 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

3) Spe­cial Addi­tion­al Duty (SAD) on Naph­tha [2710] for use in man­u­fac­ture of excis­able goods is being reduced from 4% to 2%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.21/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.11/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.45A] refers.

4) Basic Cus­toms Duty on liq­ue­fied butanes [2711 13 00] is being reduced from 5% to 2.5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.142C] refers.

5) Sched­uled rate of Addi­tion­al Duty of Cus­toms levied on import­ed Motor Spir­it [Petrol] and High Speed Diesel Oil [com­mon­ly known as Road Cess] is being increased from ₹ 2 per litre to ₹ 8 per litre. A suit­able amend­ment has been pro­posed in the Sec­ond Sched­ule to the Finance (No.2) Act, 1998 and Sec­ond Sched­ule to the Finance Act, 1999. Clause 163 and 164 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refer. By virtue of dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931, these changes will come into force with imme­di­ate effect. How­ev­er, the effec­tive rate of Addi­tion­al Duty of Cus­toms levied on import­ed Motor Spir­it [Petrol] and High Speed Diesel Oil [com­mon­ly known as Road Cess] is being increased from ₹ 2 per litre to ₹ 6 per litre. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.6/2015-Customs and noti­fi­ca­tion No.7/2015-Customs both dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 refer.

Chap­ter 28:

1) Basic Cus­toms duty on sul­phuric acid [2807 00 10] for the man­u­fac­ture of fer­til­iz­ers is being reduced from 7.5% to 5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.157A] refers.

Chap­ter 29 and 30:

1) Basic Cus­toms duty on iso­prene [2901 24 00] is being reduced from 5% to 2.5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 [S.No.173D] refers.

2) Basic Cus­toms duty on styrene [2902 50 00], eth­yl­ene dichlo­ride (EDC) [2903 15 00] and Vinyl Chlo­ride Monomer (VCM) [2903 21 00] is being reduced from 2.5% to 2%. S.Nos.175, 177 and 178 Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 refers.

3) Spe­cial Addi­tion­al Duty (SAD) on styrene [2902 50 00], eth­yl­ene dichlo­ride (EDC) [2903 15 00] and Vinyl Chlo­ride Monomer (VCM) [2903 21 00] for use in man­u­fac­ture of excis­able goods is being reduced from 4% to 2%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.21/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.11/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 [new S.Nos.45B, 45C and 45D] refers.

4) Basic Cus­toms duty on anthraquinone [2914 61 00] is being reduced from 7.5% to 2.5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 [new S.Nos.181A] refers.

5) Basic Cus­toms duty on butyl acry­late [2916 12 10] is being reduced from 7.5% to 5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.181B] refers.

Chap­ter 31 to 71: No change

Chap­ters 72 &73:

1) Tar­iff rate of Basic Cus­toms Duty on iron and steel (Chap­ter 72) and arti­cles of iron or steel (Chap­ter 73) is being increased from 10% to 15%. Clause 89 of the Finance Bill 2015 refers. How­ev­er the exist­ing effec­tive rate of BCD on these goods are being retained. S.Nos.329A and 334A of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as insert­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refer. Fur­ther, it is clar­i­fied that the exist­ing con­ces­sion­al rates of Basic Cus­toms Duty in respect of goods falling under Chap­ters 72 & 73 under S.Nos. 330, 331, 332, 333 & 334 and oth­er sim­i­lar entries of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs dat­ed 17th March, 2012 will continue.

Chap­ter 74 & 76:

1) Spe­cial Addi­tion­al Duty of Cus­toms (SAD) on melt­ing scrap of iron or steel, stain­less steel scrap for the pur­pose of melt­ing, cop­per scrap, brass scrap and alu­mini­um scrap is being reduced from 4% to 2%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.21/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.11/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March 2015 [new S. Nos. 78A, 79A and 79B] refers.

Chap­ter 75, 77 to 80: No change.

Chap­ter 81:

1) Basic Cus­toms duty on anti­mo­ny met­al [8110 10 00] and anti­mo­ny waste and scrap [8110 2000] is being reduced from 5% to 2.5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.344A] refers.

Chap­ter 82, 83: No change.

Chap­ter 84:

1) Basic Cus­toms Duty on C- Block Com­pres­sor [8414 90 11], Crank Shaft [8414 90 11] and Over Load Pro­tec­tor (OLP) & Pos­i­tive ther­mal co-effi­cient [8536 20 90] for use in the man­u­fac­ture of Refrig­er­a­tor com­pres­sors is being reduced from 7.5% to 5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March 2015 [new S. Nos. 399A and 399B] refers.

2) Basic Cus­toms Duty on spec­i­fied com­po­nents [8537 10 00] of CNC Lathe machines and Machin­ing Cen­tres, name­ly Ball screws [8483 40 00], Lin­ear Motion Guides [8466 93 90] and CNC Sys­tems is being reduced from 7.5% to 2.5%, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March 2015 [new S. Nos. 406B, 406C and 406D] refers.

3) Basic Cus­toms Duty on ceria zir­co­nia com­pounds [ 2825 60 20], ceri­um com­pounds [2846 10 90] and zeo­lite [3824 90 90] is being reduced from 7.5% to 5% for use in man­u­fac­ture of wash­coat, which is used in cat­alyt­ic con­vert­ers, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March 2015 [new S. Nos. 371A, 371B and 371C] refers.

4) Parts and com­po­nents of cash dis­penser and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers [head­ing 8473 40] are exempt from Basic Cus­toms Duty. How­ev­er, since the clas­si­fi­ca­tion of parts was not men­tioned in the rel­e­vant noti­fi­ca­tion, there were doubts about the scope of the exemp­tion for parts of cash dis­penser and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers. As the ‘parts and com­po­nents of cash dis­pensers and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers’ were specif­i­cal­ly includ­ed in the

descrip­tion of goods even though their clas­si­fi­ca­tion was not, it is clar­i­fied that the ben­e­fit of exemp­tion from Basic Cus­toms Duty was avail­able to parts and com­po­nents of cash dis­penser and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers, in accor­dance with CBEC cir­cu­lar 9/96-Cus­toms dat­ed 13.2.96 [F.No.528/4/96-Customs (TU)]. Prospec­tive­ly, the S. No. 408 of the Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012- Cus­toms dat­ed 17–3‑2012 is being amend­ed to include the clas­si­fi­ca­tion [8473 40] of parts and com­po­nents of cash dis­pensers and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers. S. No. 408 of Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cus, as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

5) Basic Cus­tom Duty is being exempt­ed on evac­u­at­ed tubes with three lay­ers of solar selec­tive coat­ing for use in the man­u­fac­ture of solar water heater and sys­tem, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.399C] refers.

6) Basic Cus­tom Duty and CVD are being exempt­ed on parts, com­po­nents and acces­sories for use in the man­u­fac­ture of tablet com­put­er. Also, Basic Cus­tom Duty and CVD are being exempt­ed on sub-parts for use in man­u­fac­ture of parts, com­po­nents and acces­sories of tablet com­put­ers. Both BCD and CVD being exempt, vide S. No. 1 of noti­fi­ca­tion No 21/2012-Cus­toms, dat­ed 17–3‑2012, the SAD on these goods will also be exempt. These exemp­tions are sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.407A] refers.

Chap­ter 85

1) Basic Cus­tom Duty is being exempt­ed on High Den­si­ty Poly­eth­yl­ene (HDPE) for man­u­fac­ture of telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion grade opti­cal fibres or opti­cal fibre cables. Item-11 of List‑5 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

2) Basic Cus­tom Duty is being reduced from 10% to 7.5% on Water Block­ing Tape, Eth­yl­ene-propy­lene-non-con­ju­gat­ed diene rub­ber (EPDM) and Mica glass tape for use in the man­u­fac­ture of insu­lat­ed wires and cables (except sub-head­ing 8544 11), sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.Nos.247A-247C] refers.

3) Basic Cus­tom Duty is being reduced from 10% to 7.5% on met­al parts for use in man­u­fac­ture of elec­tri­cal insu­la­tors, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.334B] refers.

4) Con­ces­sion­al Basic Cus­tom Duty of 5% is being extend­ed to AEC (Active Ener­gy Con­troller) for man­u­fac­ture of Renew­able Pow­er Sys­tem (RPS) invert­ers, sub­ject to cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by Min­istry of New and Renew­able Ener­gy [MNRE]. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.424A and Con­di­tion No. 46] refers.

5) Basic Cus­tom Duty is being reduced from 10% to Nil on Dig­i­tal Still Image Video Cam­eras capa­ble of record­ing video with min­i­mum res­o­lu­tion of 800x600 pix­els, at min­i­mum 23 frames per sec­ond, for at least 30 min­utes in a sin­gle sequence, using the max­i­mum stor­age (includ­ing the expand­ed) capac­i­ty. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.428A] refers. Basic Cus­tom Duty is also being also reduced from 5% to Nil on parts and com­po­nents for use in the man­u­fac­ture of such Dig­i­tal Cam­eras. S.No.429 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No. 10/2015-Cus­toms, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

6) Basic Cus­tom Duty is being reduced on Organ­ic LED (OLED) TV pan­els from 10% to Nil. S.No.432 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

7) Basic Cus­tom Duty is being exempt­ed on Black Light Unit Mod­ule also for man­u­fac­ture of LCD/LED TV pan­els, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. S.No.432B of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

8) Basic Cus­tom Duty is being reduced from 5% to Nil on mag­netron (upto 1 KW) used for the man­u­fac­ture of domes­tic microwave oven. S. No. 433 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

9) Spe­cial Addi­tion­al Duty (SAD) is being exempt­ed on all goods [except pop­u­lat­ed PCBs] for use in the man­u­fac­ture of ITA bound goods cov­ered by Noti­fi­ca­tion Nos. 25/1998-Cus­toms dat­ed 2nd June, 1998, 24/2005-Cus­toms dat­ed 1st March, 2005, 25/2005-Cus­toms dat­ed 1st March, 2005, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.21/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.11/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No. 14D] refers.

10) Spe­cial Addi­tion­al Duty (SAD) is being exempt­ed on all inputs for use in the man­u­fac­ture of LED dri­ver and MCPCB for LED lights and Fix­tures & LED Lamps, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.21/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.11/2015-Customs, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.14F] refers.

Chap­ter 86: No change.

Chap­ter 87

1) Tar­iff rate of BCD on import of vehi­cles falling under head­ings 8702 or 8704 (com­mer­cial vehi­cles) is being increased from 10% to 40%. Clause 89 of the Finance Bill 2015 refers. By virtue of the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931, this increase will come into force with imme­di­ate effect. An effec­tive BCD rate of 10% is being pre­scribed on vehi­cles falling under head­ings 8702 or 8704 (com­mer­cial vehi­cles) when import­ed in a Com­plete­ly Knocked Down (CKD) kit. All such vehi­cles when import­ed in any oth­er form will attract BCD of 20%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No 436A] refers. How­ev­er, elec­tri­cal­ly oper­at­ed vehi­cles includ­ing in CKD con­di­tion, for trans­port of per­sons falling under head­ing 8702 would con­tin­ue to attract 10% BCD. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 436B] refers.

2) The valid­i­ty peri­od of exemp­tion grant­ed to spec­i­fied goods for use in the man­u­fac­ture of hybrid and elec­tri­cal­ly oper­at­ed vehi­cles is being extend­ed by one more year up to 31st March, 2016. Claus­es (g) and (h) of pro­vi­so to noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cus­toms, as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No. 10/2015-Cus­toms, dat­ed the 1st March 2015 refers.

Chap­ter 88, 89: No change.

Chap­ter 90:

1) CVD is being exempt­ed on spec­i­fied raw mate­ri­als for use in the man­u­fac­ture of pace­mak­ers, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cus­toms, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015- Cus­toms, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 488A] refers. Fur­ther, these good are also being exempt­ed from SAD sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 21/2012-Cus­toms, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.11/2015- Cus­toms, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 14E] refers.

2) Basic Cus­toms Duty on spec­i­fied inputs for use in the man­u­fac­ture of flex­i­ble med­ical video endo­scope is being reduced from 5% to 2.5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cus­toms, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015- Cus­toms, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 474A] refers.

3) Basic Cus­toms Duty and CVD is being ful­ly exempt­ed on arti­fi­cial hearts (left ven­tric­u­lar assist device). S.No.480 of noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cus­toms, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015- Cus­toms, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

Chap­ter 91 to 98: No change.

Mis­cel­la­neous:

1) Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs [S.No.148©] ful­ly exempts Basic Cus­toms Duty and CVD levi­able on life sav­ing drugs and med­i­cines import­ed by an indi­vid­ual for per­son­al use sub­ject to the Con­di­tion No.10, which stip­u­lates that importer pro­duces a cer­tifi­cate (in pre­scribed form) issued by the Direc­tor Gen­er­al or Deputy Direc­tor Gen­er­al or Assis­tant Direc­tor Gen­er­al, Health Ser­vices, New Del­hi, Direc­tor of Health Ser­vices of the State Gov­ern­ment or the Dis­trict Med­ical Officer/Civil Sur­geon of the dis­trict, in each indi­vid­ual case, that the goods are life sav­ing drugs or med­i­cines. The pre­scribed Form is being amend­ed so as to pro­vide that such cer­tifi­cate shall be valid for a peri­od of one year in case of patients who have to import such drugs and med­i­cines on a reg­u­lar basis. Con­di­tion No.10 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 refers.

2) S. No. 507 of Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cus­toms dat­ed 17–3‑2012 pre­scribes Nil BCD and NIL CVD for goods import­ed for set­ting up a Mega Pow­er Project spec­i­fied in List No. 32A of the said Noti­fi­ca­tion. In case of imports for a project for which the cer­tifi­cate regard­ing Mega Pow­er Project sta­tus is pro­vi­sion­al, the exemp­tion is, inter alia, sub­ject to con­di­tion that importer fur­nish­es a bank guar­an­tee or fixed deposit receipt for a term of 36 months or more. This con­di­tion is being amend­ed to pre­scribe fur­nish­ing of bank guar­an­tee or fixed deposit receipt for a peri­od of 66 months. This con­di­tion is also applic­a­ble to imports under S. No. 508 of Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cus­toms, dat­ed 17–3‑2012. Con­di­tion No.93 of noti­fi­ca­tion No 12/2012-Cus­toms, dat­ed 17th March 2012, as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No 10/2015-Cus­toms, dat­ed the 1st March 2015 refers.

3) CVD and SAD exemp­tion on spec­i­fied goods import­ed for use by Secu­ri­ty Print­ing and Mint­ing Cor­po­ra­tion of India Lim­it­ed (SPMCIL) are being with­drawn. S.No.394 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs dat­ed 1st March, 2015 and S.No.83 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.21/2012-Customs, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as delet­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No. 11/2015-Cus­toms, dat­ed the 1st March, 2015 refers.

4) Noti­fi­ca­tions No.13/2012-Customs and No.14/2012-Customs both dat­ed 17th March, 2012 exempt Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess levi­able as CVD on import­ed goods. Since Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess levi­able on excis­able goods are being exempt­ed in gen­er­al, there will be no cor­re­spond­ing levy as CVD on import­ed goods. Hence, these noti­fi­ca­tions are being rescind­ed. In this regard, noti­fi­ca­tion No.9/2015-Customs dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

*****

ANNEX II

EXCISE

Gen­er­al:

CENVAT rate:

1) Edu­ca­tion Cess levied on all excis­able goods as a duty of excise under sec­tion 91 read with sec­tion 93 of the Finance Act, 2004 is being ful­ly exempt­ed. In this regard, noti­fi­ca­tion No.14/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers. Sim­i­lar­ly, Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess levi­able on excis­able goods as a duty of excise under sec­tion 136 read with 138 of the Finance Act, 2007 is also being ful­ly exempt­ed. In this regard, noti­fi­ca­tion No.15/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

2) Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, the stan­dard ad val­orem rate of duty of excise (i.e. CENVAT) is being increased from 12% to 12.5%. Spe­cif­ic rates of Basic Excise Duty on petrol, diesel, cement, cig­a­rettes & oth­er tobac­co prod­ucts (oth­er than biris) are also being suit­ably changed. In this regard, the First Sched­ule to the Cen­tral Excise Tar­iff Act, 1985 as amend­ed by Clause 104 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. These changes will come into force with imme­di­ate effect owing to a dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931. Also, see S.Nos.42, 43, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53, 90, 107, 205A, 244, 273, 278, 279, 281, 285, 286, 287, 288 and 289 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

3) Oth­er Basic Excise Duty rates (ad val­orem as well as spe­cif­ic) with a few excep­tions are not being changed.

4) Noti­fi­ca­tions No.13/2012-Customs and No.14/2012-Customs both dat­ed 17th March, 2012 exempt Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess levi­able as CVD on import­ed goods. Since Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess levi­able on excis­able goods are being exempt­ed in gen­er­al, there will be no cor­re­spond­ing levy as CVD on import­ed goods. Hence, these noti­fi­ca­tions are being rescind­ed. In this regard, noti­fi­ca­tion No.9/2015-Customs dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

5) S.No.1A and 1B of noti­fi­ca­tion No.23/2003-Central Excise, dat­ed 31.03.2003 exempt the Cus­toms com­po­nent of Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess. Since Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess levi­able on excis­able goods are being ful­ly exempt­ed, there will be no levy of these Cess­es either on CVD while cal­cu­lat­ing the aggre­gate of the duties of cus­toms or on excise duty levi­able under the pro­vi­so to sec­tion 3 of the Cen­tral Excise Act, 1944. There­fore, the entries S.No.1A and 1B are being omit­ted. Also, the entries at S.No.5A, 6 and 7A are being amend­ed so as to sub­sti­tute the rate of 12% with 12.5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.16/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

6) Noti­fi­ca­tions No.28/2010-Central Excise and No.29/2010-Central Excise, both dat­ed 22nd June, 2010 exempt the levy of Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess on the clean ener­gy cess levi­able on coal. Since Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess are being exempt­ed on excis­able goods in gen­er­al, noti­fi­ca­tions No.28/2010-Central Excise and No.29/2010-Central Excise, both dat­ed 22nd June, 2010 are being rescind­ed. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.17/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

7) The rate of excise duty applic­a­ble to goods cov­ered by the Med­i­c­i­nal and Toi­let Prepa­ra­tions Act, 1955 is being increased from 12% to 12.5% ad val­orem. In this regard, noti­fi­ca­tion No.1/2015‑M&TP dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

8) There is no change in Edu­ca­tion Cess levi­able on import­ed goods under sec­tion 91 read with sec­tion 94 of the Finance Act, 2004 as a duty of cus­toms and Sec­ondary & High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess levi­able on import­ed goods under sec­tion 136 read with 139 of the Finance Act, 2007 as a duty of cus­toms. These Cess­es shall con­tin­ue to be levied on import­ed goods.

Chap­ter 1 to 3: No change.

Chap­ter 4:

1) Excise duty of 2% with­out CENVAT cred­it or 6% with CENVAT cred­it is being levied on con­densed milk [0402 91 10 and 0402 99 20] put up in unit con­tain­ers. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.1/2011-Central Excise, dat­ed 1st March, 2011 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.7/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.1A] and noti­fi­ca­tion No.2/2011-Central Excise, dat­ed 1st March, 2011 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.8/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.1A] refer. Con­densed milk [0402 91 10 and 0402 99 20] is also being noti­fied under sec­tion 4A of the Cen­tral Excise Act for the pur­pose of val­u­a­tion with ref­er­ence to the Retail Sale Price, with an abate­ment of 30%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.49/2008-Central Excise (N.T.), dat­ed 21.12.2008 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.3/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.1A] refers. Con­densed milk, oth­er than put up in unit con­tain­ers will con­tin­ue to be exempt from excise duty. S.No.1 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012, as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

Chap­ter 5 to 19: No change.

Chap­ter 20:

1) Excise duty of 2% with­out CENVAT cred­it or 6% with CENVAT cred­it is being levied on peanut but­ter [2008 11 00]. S.No.14 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.1/2011-Central Excise, dat­ed 1st March, 2011 and S.No.13A of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as omit­ted by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refer.

Chap­ter 21:

1) All goods falling under Chap­ter sub-head­ing 2101 20, includ­ing iced tea, are being noti­fied under sec­tion 4A of the Cen­tral Excise Act for the pur­pose of assess­ment of Cen­tral Excise duty with ref­er­ence to the Retail Sale Price with an abate­ment of 30%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.49/2008-Central Excise (N.T.), dat­ed 21.12.2008 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.3/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.16A] refers. The Third Sched­ule to the Cen­tral Excise Act, 1944 is also being amend­ed so as to include there­in all goods falling under Chap­ter sub-head­ing 2101 20, includ­ing iced tea. Clause 103 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. By virtue of dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931, these changes will come into force with imme­di­ate effect.

Chap­ter 22:

1) All goods falling under head­ing 2202 [oth­er than min­er­al waters and aer­at­ed waters which attract abate­ment of 45% and 40% respec­tive­ly] are being noti­fied under sec­tion 4A of the Cen­tral Excise Act for the pur­pose of assess­ment of Cen­tral Excise duty with ref­er­ence to the Retail Sale Price with an abate­ment of 35%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.49/2008-Central Excise (N.T.), dat­ed 21.12.2008 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.3/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new­ly insert­ed S.No.25A and omit­ted S.No.121, 122, 123 and 124] refer. The Third Sched­ule to the Cen­tral Excise Act, 1944 is also being amend­ed so as to include there­in all goods falling under Chap­ter head­ing 2202. Clause 103 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. By virtue of dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931, these changes will come into force with imme­di­ate effect.

2) Excise duty on “waters, includ­ing min­er­al waters and aer­at­ed waters, con­tain­ing added sug­ar or oth­er sweet­en­ing mat­ter or flavoured” falling under Chap­ter sub-head­ing 2202 10 is being increased from 12% to 18%. Clause 104 of the Finance Bill refers. By virtue of dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931, this increase will come into force with imme­di­ate effect. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, the entry in the Sev­enth Sched­ule to the Finance Act, 2005 relat­ing to levy of addi­tion­al duty of excise @ 5% on these goods is being omit­ted. Clause 184 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.6/2005-Central Excise, dat­ed 1st March, 2005 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.9/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.1A] pre­scribes Nil rate of addi­tion­al duty of excise on such goods till the enact­ment of the Finance Bill, 2015.

Chap­ter 24:

Tar­iff Item Descrip­tion (length in mm) BED Rs. per 1000 sticks (Exist­ing Rate) BED Rs. per 1000 sticks (New Rate)
24022010 Non fil­ter not exceed­ing 65 990 1280
24022020 Non-fil­ter exceed­ing 65 but not exceed­ing 70 1995 2335
24022030 Fil­ter not exceed­ing 65 990 1280
24022040 Fil­ter exceed­ing 65 but not exceed­ing 70 1490 1740
24022050 Fil­ter exceed­ing 70 but not exceed­ing 75 1995 2335
24022090 Oth­er 2875 3375

2) Excise duty on cut tobac­co is being increased from ₹ 60 per kg to ₹ 70 per kg. Clause 104 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. By virtue of dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931, the increase will come into force with imme­di­ate effect.

3) Max­i­mum speed of pack­ing machine for pack­ages of noti­fied goods of var­i­ous retail sale prices is being spec­i­fied as a fac­tor rel­e­vant to pro­duc­tion for deter­min­ing excise duty payable under the Com­pound­ed Levy Scheme present­ly applic­a­ble to pan masala, gutkha and chew­ing tobac­co. In this regard, sec­tion 3A of the Cen­tral Excise Act, 1944 is being amend­ed to insert an Expla­na­tion so as enable the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment to spec­i­fy more than one fac­tor rel­e­vant to pro­duc­tion. Clause 90 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. By virtue of dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931, this amend­ment will come into force with imme­di­ate effect. Accord­ing­ly, deemed pro­duc­tion and duty payable per machine per month are being noti­fied with ref­er­ence to the speed range in which the max­i­mum speed of a pack­ing machine for pack­ages of var­i­ous retail sale prices falls. Con­se­quen­tial amend­ments are being car­ried in the Pan Masala Pack­ing machines (Capac­i­ty Deter­mi­na­tion and­Col­lec­tion of Duty) Rules, 2008 and Chew­ing Tobac­co and Unman­u­fac­tured Tobac­co Pack­ing Machines (Capac­i­ty Deter­mi­na­tion and Col­lec­tion of Duty) Rules, 2010. Rule 6(vii) of the said Rules pro­vide that the man­u­fac­tur­er in the pre­scribed Form 1 shall declare the max­i­mum pack­ing speed at which the pack­ing machine can be oper­at­ed for pack­ing of pouch­es of noti­fied goods of var­i­ous retail sale prices. A pro­vi­so is being insert­ed in sub-rule (3) of rule 6 of the said Rules so as to enable the AC / DC, as the case may be, to re-deter­mine the annu­al capac­i­ty of pro­duc­tion with­in 3 work­ing days of the com­ing into force of the Pack­ing machines (Capac­i­ty Deter­mi­na­tion and Col­lec­tion of Duty) Amend­ment Rules, 2015 and Chew­ing Tobac­co and Unman­u­fac­tured Tobac­co Pack­ing Machines (Capac­i­ty Deter­mi­na­tion and Col­lec­tion of Duty) Amend­ment Rules, 2015. In this regard, noti­fi­ca­tion No.42/2008-Central Excise dat­ed 1st July 2008 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.6/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 and noti­fi­ca­tion No.30/2008-Central Excise (N.T.) dat­ed 1st July, 2008 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.5/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) dat­ed 1st March, 2015 in respect of Pan Masala and Gutkha refer. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.16/2010-Central Excise dat­ed 27th Feb­ru­ary, 2010 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.5/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 and noti­fi­ca­tion No.11/2010-Central Excise (N.T.) dat­ed 27th Feb­ru­ary, 2010 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.4/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) dat­ed 1st March, 2015 in respect of Chew­ing tobac­co, unman­u­fac­tured tobac­co, jar­da scent­ed tobac­co and fil­ter khai­ni refer.

Chap­ter 25:

1) Tar­iff rate of excise duty on goods falling under Chap­ter sub-head­ing 2523 29 is being increased from ₹ 900 per tonne to ₹ 1000 per tonne. Clause 104 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. By virtue of dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931, the increase will come into force with imme­di­ate effect. The effec­tive rates of goods falling under Chap­ter sub-head­ing 2523 29 are spec­i­fied vide S.Nos.51 and 52 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise dat­ed 17th March, 2012, as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015.

Chap­ter 26: No change.

Chap­ter 27:

1) Tar­iff rate of excise duty on high speed diesel (HSD) falling under tar­iff item 2710 19 30 is being increased from 14% + ₹ 5 per litre to 14% + ₹ 15 per litre. How­ev­er, there is no change in the aggre­gate of var­i­ous duties of excise on high speed diesel (HSD). Clause 104 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers.

2) The Sec­ond Sched­ule to the Finance (No.2) Act, 1998 is being amend­ed so as to increase the Sched­ule rate of Addi­tion­al Duty of Excise and Addi­tion­al Duty of Cus­toms (com­mon­ly known as Road Cess) on Motor Spir­it com­mon­ly known as Petrol from ₹ 2 per litre to ₹ 8 per litre. Clause 163 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. The Sec­ond Sched­ule to the Finance Act, 1999 is being amend­ed so as to increase the Sched­ule rate of Addi­tion­al Duty of Excise and Addi­tion­al Duty of Cus­toms (com­mon­ly known as Road Cess) on High Speed Diesel oil from ₹ 2 per litre to ₹ 8 per litre. Clause 164 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. Increase in Sched­ule rate of Addi­tion­al Duty will come into effect imme­di­ate­ly owing to a dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931. How­ev­er, the effec­tive rates of the Addi­tion­al Duty of Excise (com­mon­ly known as Road Cess) levied on Petrol and High Speed Diesel Oil are being increased from ₹ 2 per litre to ₹ 6 per litre only. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.6/2015-Customs and No.7/2015-Customs, both dat­ed 1st March, 2015 and noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Central Excise and No.11/2015-Central Excise, both dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refer. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, the Basic Excise Duty rates on petrol (both brand­ed and unbrand­ed) and diesel (both brand­ed and unbrand­ed) are being reduced by ₹ 4 per litre. Fur­ther, Edu­ca­tion Cess and Sec­ondary and High­er Edu­ca­tion Cess, present­ly applic­a­ble to petro­le­um prod­ucts, includ­ing petrol and High Speed Diesel, are being exempt­ed. On this count, rates of duty of excise (CENVAT) on Petrol and High Speed Diesel Oil (both brand­ed and unbrand­ed) are also being revised. In this regard, S.Nos.70 and 71 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refer. Table below sum­ma­rizes the changes in var­i­ous duties applic­a­ble to petrol and diesel:-

Duty rates applic­a­ble pri­or upto 28.02.02105 Duty rates applic­a­ble with effect from 01.03.2015
CENVAT

Rs. / Litre

SAED

Rs. / Litre

AED Rs. / Litre Edu­ca­tion Cesses

(as % of aggre­gate of duties of excise)

Total

Rs. / Litre

CENVAT SAED AED Edu­ca­tion Cesses Total
Unbrand­ed petrol
8.95 6 2 3% 17.46 5.46 6 6 NIL 17.46
Brand­ed petrol
10.10 6 2 3% 18.64 6.64 6 6 NIL 18.64
Unbrand­ed Diesel
7.96 NIL 2 3% 10.26 4.26 NIL 6 NIL 10.26
Brand­ed Diesel
14% +Rs. 5 /litre or ₹ 10.25 /litre, whichever NIL 2 3% 12.62 6.62 NIL 6 NIL 12.62
Duty rates applic­a­ble pri­or upto 28.02.02105 Duty rates applic­a­ble with effect from 01.03.2015
CENVAT

Rs. / Litre

SAED

Rs. / Litre

AED Rs. / Litre Edu­ca­tion Cesses

(as % of aggre­gate of duties of excise)

Total

Rs. / Litre

CENVAT SAED AED Edu­ca­tion Cesses Total
is low­er

Thus, the total inci­dence of var­i­ous duties of excise on petrol and diesel remains unchanged.

3) The Sched­ule Rate of Clean Ener­gy Cess, levied on coal, lig­nite and peat, is being increased from ₹ 100 per tonne to ₹ 300 per tonne. Clause 188 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers. The increase in rate of Clean Ener­gy Cess will come into effect imme­di­ate­ly owing to a dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931. How­ev­er, the effec­tive rate of Clean Ener­gy Cess is being increased from ₹ 100 per tonne to ₹ 200 per tonne. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.1/2015-Clean Ener­gy Cess, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

Chap­ter 28 to 32: No change

Chap­ter 33:

1) Full exemp­tion from excise duty is being pro­vid­ed to all goods which are con­sumed with­in the fac­to­ry of their pro­duc­tion in the man­u­fac­ture of Agar­bat­ti [3307 41 00]. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/96-Central Excise dat­ed 23rd July, 1996 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.13/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.8A] refers.

Chap­ter 34 to 38: No change.

Chap­ter 39:

1) Tar­iff rate of excise duty on all goods falling under tar­iff item 3923 21 00 and Chap­ter sub-head­ing 3923 29 is being increased from 12% to 18%. How­ev­er, the effec­tive rate of excise duty on sacks and bags of poly­mers of eth­yl­ene [3923 21 00] oth­er than for indus­tri­al use is being increased from 12% to 15%. Oth­er sacks and bags falling under sub-head­ing 3923 29 shall remain at 12.5%. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012- Cen­tral Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015- Cen­tral Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [New S. Nos.148B, 148C and 148D] refers.

Chap­ter 40 to 63: No change.

Chap­ter 64:

1) Basic Excise Duty on leather footwear of Retail Sale Price exceed­ing ₹ 1000 per pair falling under Cen­tral Excise Tar­iff head­ing 6403 and 6405 is being reduced from 12% to 6%. For the pur­pos­es of this exemp­tion, leather footwear means footwear, clas­si­fied under CETH 6403 or 6405, hav­ing uppers of leather, where leather refers to goods of head­ing 4107 or 4112 to 4114. This con­ces­sion­al rate of 6% would how­ev­er not apply to footwear with leather sole and tex­tile uppers falling under CETH 6404. Footwear, includ­ing leather footwear, of Retail Sale Price upto ₹ 500 per pair and those with RSP exceed­ing ₹ 500 per pair but not exceed­ing ₹ 1000 per pair will con­tin­ue to attract NIL and 6% excise duty respec­tive­ly. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012- Cen­tral Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015- Cen­tral Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [New S. No. 180A] refers.

2) The abate­ment as a per­cent­age of Retail Sale Price is being reduced from 35% to 25% for all footwear. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.49/2008-Central Excise (N.T.), dat­ed 24th Decem­ber, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.3/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [S. No. 56] refers.

Chap­ter 65 to 71: No change.

Chap­ter 72:

1) Excise duty is being reduced from 12% to Nil on Pig iron SG grade (7201 1000) and fer­ro-sil­i­con-mag­ne­sium (7202 2900) for man­u­fac­ture of cast com­po­nents of wind oper­at­ed elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tors sub­ject to cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by Min­istry of New Renew­able Ener­gy [MNRE]. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No. 201A, 201B & Con­di­tion No. 53] refers.

Chap­ter 73:

1) S.No.205A of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise dat­ed 17.03.2012 exempts rail­way or tramway track con­struc­tion mate­r­i­al of iron and steel from pay­ment of excise duty on the val­ue of rails, sub­ject to con­di­tion that such rails have suf­fered excise duty and no cred­it of duty paid on them is tak­en under the CENVAT Cred­it Rules, 2004. This exemp­tion is being made applic­a­ble ret­ro­spec­tive­ly for the peri­od from 17.03.2012 to 02.02.2014. Clause 102 of the Finance Bill, 2015 may be referred to for details.

Chap­ter 74:

1) Full exemp­tion from excise duty is being extend­ed to round cop­per wire and tine alloys for use in the man­u­fac­ture of PV rib­bon (tinned cop­per inter­con­nect) for man­u­fac­ture of solar PV cells and mod­ules, sub­ject to cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by Depart­ment of Elec­tron­ics and Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy (DeitY). Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [Sl. Nos. 215A and 215B] refers.

Chap­ter 75 to 83: No change.

Chap­ter 84:

1) Excise duty exemp­tion is being with­drawn on solar water heater and sys­tem. Item‑5 of List‑8 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as omit­ted vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015. Fur­ther, option­al excise duty of Nil with­out CENVAT cred­it / 12.5% with CENVAT cred­it is being extend­ed to solar water heater and sys­tem. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 238A] and Clause 104 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refer.

2) Excise duty exemp­tion on parts for use in man­u­fac­ture of solar water heater and sys­tem is being con­tin­ued, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 238B] refers.

3) Excise duty of 2% with­out CENVAT cred­it / 12.5% with CENVAT cred­it is being pro­vid­ed to tablet com­put­er. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S.No.254A] and rel­e­vant entry in Clause 104 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refer.

4) Fur­ther, excise duty is being exempt­ed on parts, com­po­nents and acces­sories for use in man­u­fac­ture of tablet com­put­er. Excise duty is also being exempt­ed on sub-parts for use in man­u­fac­ture of parts, com­po­nents and acces­sories of tablet com­put­ers. These exemp­tions are sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 254B] refers.

Chap­ter 85:

1) Excise duty on mobile hand­sets includ­ing cel­lu­lar phone is being changed from 1% with­out CENVAT cred­it or 6% with CENVAT cred­it to 1% with­out CENVAT cred­it or 12.5% with CENVAT cred­it. S.No.263A of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 and Clause 104 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refer. NCCD of 1% on mobile hand­sets includ­ing cel­lu­lar phone, remains unchanged.

2) Excise duty is being reduced from 12% to 6% on wafers for use in the man­u­fac­ture of IC mod­ules for smart cards, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 145A] refers.

3) Excise duty is being reduced from 12% to 6% on all inputs for use in man­u­fac­ture of LED dri­ver and MCPCB for LED lights and Fix­tures & LED Lamps, sub­ject to actu­al user con­ditin. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 321B] refers.

4) RSP based assess­ment is being pre­scribed express­ly for LED lights or fix­tures includ­ing LED lamps (Chap­ter 85 or 94) with an abate­ment of 35%. S.No.101 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.49/2008-Central Excise (N.T.), dat­ed 24th Decem­ber, 2008 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.3/2015-Central Excise (N.T.), dat­ed 1st March, 2015 and Clause 103 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refer.

Chap­ter 86: No change.

Chap­ter 87:

1) Excise duty on chas­sis for ambu­lance is being reduced from 24% to 12.5%, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 288A] refers.

2) The valid­i­ty peri­od of con­ces­sion­al excise duty of 6% grant­ed to spec­i­fied goods used in the man­u­fac­ture of elec­tri­cal­ly oper­at­ed vehi­cles and hybrid vehi­cles is being extend­ed by one more year up to 31st March, 2016. First pro­vi­so to noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2015-Cen­tral Excise, dat­ed the 1st March 2015 refers.

Chap­ter 88, 89: No change.

Chap­ter 90:

1) Excise duty is being exempt­ed on spec­i­fied raw mate­ri­als for use in man­u­fac­ture of pace­mak­ers, sub­ject to actu­al user con­di­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 1st March, 2015 [new S. No. 318A] refers.

Chap­ter 91 to 96: No change.

Mis­cel­la­neous:

1) Goods man­u­fac­tured domes­ti­cal­ly and sup­plied against Inter­na­tion­al Com­pet­i­tive Bid­ding are eli­gi­ble for full excise duty exemp­tion pro­vid­ed that such goods when import­ed attract Nil Basic Cus­toms Duty and Nil CVD [S.No.336 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise dat­ed 17.03.2012 read with Con­di­tion No.41]. The con­di­tion is being amend­ed so as to pro­vide that if import­ed goods are eli­gi­ble for Nil Basic Cus­toms Duty and Nil CVD sub­ject to cer­tain con­di­tions, then the said con­di­tions shall also apply mutatis mutan­dis to such goods when man­u­fac­tured domes­ti­cal­ly and sup­plied against Inter­na­tion­al Com­pet­i­tive Bid­ding for the pur­pos­es of avail­ing of the said excise duty exemp­tion. Con­di­tion No.41 of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012- Cen­tral Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

2) S. No. 337 of Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cen­tral Excise dat­ed 17–3‑2012 pro­vid­ed Nil excise duty on goods for set­ting up of Ultra Mega Pow­er Project spec­i­fied in List No. 10 of the said Noti­fi­ca­tion. In case of goods for a Project for which cer­tifi­cate regard­ing Ultra Mega Pow­er Project sta­tus is pro­vi­sion­al, the exemp­tion is sub­ject inter alia to con­di­tion that the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of the Project fur­nish­es a bank guar­an­tee or fixed deposit receipt for a term of 36 months or more. This con­di­tion is being amend­ed to pre­scribe fur­nish­ing of bank guar­an­tee or fixed deposit receipts for a peri­od of 42 months. Con­di­tion No. 42(b) of Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012- Cen­tral Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

3) S. No. 338 of Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cen­tral Excise dated17‑3–2012 pro­vid­ed Nil excise duty on goods for set­ting up of Mega Pow­er Project spec­i­fied in List No. 11 of the said Noti­fi­ca­tion. In case of goods for a Project for which cer­tifi­cate regard­ing Mega Pow­er Project sta­tus is pro­vi­sion­al, the exemp­tion is sub­ject inter alia to con­di­tion that the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of the Project fur­nish­es a bank guar­an­tee or fixed deposit receipt for a term of 36 months or more. This con­di­tion is being amend­ed to pre­scribe fur­nish­ing of bank guar­an­tee or fixed deposit receipts for a peri­od of 66 months. Con­di­tion No. 43(b) of

Noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012- Cen­tral Excise, dat­ed 17th March, 2012 as amend­ed by noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2015-Central Excise, dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

*****

ANNEX III

CLARIFICATION

CUSTOMS

1) Bulk drugs used in the man­u­fac­ture of the spec­i­fied drugs (list­ed in the table annexed to the exemp­tion noti­fi­ca­tion) are either exempt from BCD or attract con­ces­sion­al rate of 5% BCD, under Sl. No. 148(B) and 147(B) respec­tive­ly of noti­fi­ca­tion No 12/2012-Cus­toms, if the pro­ce­dure as laid down in the Cus­toms (Import of Goods at Con­ces­sion­al Rate of Duty for Man­u­fac­ture of Excis­able Goods) Rules, 1996 is fol­lowed by the importers. Fur­ther, these bulk drugs used in the man­u­fac­ture of the spec­i­fied drugs are also exempt from excise duty, under S. No. 108 (B) of the noti­fi­ca­tion 12/2012- CE, pro­vid­ed the pro­ce­dure laid down in the Cen­tral Excise (Removal of Goods at Con­ces­sion­al Rate of Duty for Man­u­fac­ture of Excis­able Goods) Rules, is fol­lowed. In this con­text, clar­i­fi­ca­tion has been sought whether a sep­a­rate cer­tifi­cate issued under the above men­tioned Cen­tral Excise Rules is required when a sim­i­lar cer­tifi­cate under the above men­tioned Cus­toms Rules issued from the same juris­dic­tion­al Cen­tral Excise offi­cer is already pro­duced. It is being clar­i­fied that there is no need to sep­a­rate­ly com­ply with Cen­tral Excise (Removal of Goods at Con­ces­sion­al Rate of Duty for Man­u­fac­ture of Excis­able Goods) Rules, 2001 for the pur­pos­es of avail­ing of the CVD exemp­tion under noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise, if the pro­ce­dure as laid down in the Cus­toms (Import of Goods at Con­ces­sion­al Rate of Duty for Man­u­fac­ture of Excis­able Goods) Rule, 1996 is already fol­lowed by the importer for avail­ing exemp­tion / con­ces­sion from BCD on the said goods.

2) Parts and com­po­nents of cash dis­penser and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers [head­ing 8473 40] are exempt from Basic Cus­toms Duty. How­ev­er, since the clas­si­fi­ca­tion of parts was not men­tioned in the rel­e­vant noti­fi­ca­tion, there were doubts about the scope of the exemp­tion for parts of cash dis­penser and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers. As the ‘parts and com­po­nents of cash dis­pensers and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers’ were specif­i­cal­ly includ­ed in the descrip­tion of goods even though their clas­si­fi­ca­tion was not, it is clar­i­fied that the ben­e­fit of exemp­tion from Basic Cus­toms Duty was avail­able to parts and com­po­nents of cash dis­penser and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers, in accor­dance with CBEC cir­cu­lar 9/96-Cus­toms dat­ed 13.2.96 [F.No.528/4/96-Customs (TU)]. Prospec­tive­ly, the S. No. 408 of the Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012- Cus­toms dat­ed 17–3‑2012 is being amend­ed to include the clas­si­fi­ca­tion [8473 40] of parts and com­po­nents of cash dis­pensers and auto­mat­ic bank note dis­pensers. S. No. 408 of Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 12/2012-Cus, as amend­ed vide noti­fi­ca­tion No.10/2015-Customs dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refers.

*****

ANNEX IV

LEGISLATIVE CHANGES

AMENDMENTS IN THE CUSTOMS ACT, 1962:

1) Sec­tion 28 is being amend­ed so as to:

(i) Insert a pro­vi­so in sub-sec­tion (2) there­of to pro­vide that in cas­es not involv­ing fraud or col­lu­sion or wil­ful mis-state­ment or sup­pres­sion of facts or con­tra­ven­tion of any pro­vi­sion of the Act or rules with the intent to evade pay­ment of duty, no penal­ty shall be imposed if the amount of duty along with inter­est levi­able under sec­tion 28AA or the amount of inter­est, as the case may be, as spec­i­fied in the notice, is paid in full with­in 30 days from the date of receipt of the notice and the pro­ceed­ings in respect of such per­son or oth­er per­sons to whom the notice is served shall be deemed to be concluded;

(ii) Pro­vide that in cas­es involv­ing fraud or col­lu­sion or wil­ful mis-state­ment or sup­pres­sion of facts or con­tra­ven­tion of any pro­vi­sion of the Act or rules with the intent to evade pay­ment of duty, the amount of penal­ty payable shall be 15% instead of the present 25%;

(iii) Insert Expla­na­tion 3 to pro­vide that where a notice under clause (a) of sub-sec­tion (1) or sub-sec­tion (4) of sec­tion 28, as the case may be, has been served but an order deter­min­ing duty under sub-sec­tion (8) has not been passed before the date on which the Finance Bill, 2015 receives the assent of the Pres­i­dent, then, with­out prej­u­dice to the pro­vi­sions of sec­tions 135, 135A and 140, as may be applic­a­ble, the pro­ceed­ings in respect of such per­son or oth­er per­sons to whom the notice is served shall be deemed to be con­clud­ed if the pay­ment of duty, inter­est and penal­ty under the pro­vi­so to sub-sec­tion (2) or under sub-sec­tion (5), as the case may be, is made in full with­in 30 days from the date on which such assent is received.

[Clause 80 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

2) Sec­tion 112 pro­vides for penal­ty for improp­er impor­ta­tion of goods, etc. Sec­tion 112 is being amend­ed so as to sub­sti­tute sub-clause (ii) of clause (b) to pro­vide that any per­son who acquires pos­ses­sion of or is in any way con­cerned with or in any oth­er man­ner deals with any dutiable goods, oth­er than pro­hib­it­ed goods, which he knows or has rea­sons to believe are liable to con­fis­ca­tion under sec­tion 111, shall, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of sec­tion 114A, be liable to a penal­ty not exceed­ing 10% of the duty sought to be evad­ed of ₹ 5000, whichev­er is greater. It is also being pro­vid­ed that in cas­es of short levy or non-levy or short pay­ment or non-pay­ment and erro­neous refund of duty for rea­sons of col­lu­sion or any will­ful mis-state­ment or sup­pres­sion of facts, if the duty as deter­mined under sub-sec­tion (8) of sec­tion 28 and the inter­est payable there­on under sec­tion 28AA is paid with­in 30 days from the date of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of the order of the prop­er offi­cer deter­min­ing such duty, the amount of penal­ty liable to paid by such per­son under this sec­tion shall be 25% of the penal­ty so determined.

[Clause 81 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

3) Sec­tion 114 pro­vides for penal­ty for attempt to export goods improp­er­ly, etc. Sec­tion 114 is being amend­ed so as to sub­sti­tute clause (ii) to pro­vide that any per­son who, in rela­tion to any dutiable goods, oth­er than pro­hib­it­ed goods, does or omits to do any act which act or omis­sion would ren­der such goods liable to con­fis­ca­tion under sec­tion 113, or abets the doing or omis­sion of such an act, shall, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of sec­tion 114A, be liable to a penal­ty not exceed­ing 10% of the duty sought to be evad­ed of ₹ 5000, whichev­er is greater. It is also being pro­vid­ed that in cas­es of short levy or non-levy or short pay­ment or non-pay­ment and erro­neous refund of duty for rea­sons of col­lu­sion or any will­ful mis-state­ment or sup­pres­sion of facts, if the duty as deter­mined under sub-sec­tion (8) of sec­tion 28 and the inter­est payable there­on under sec­tion 28AA is paid with­in 30 days from the date of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of the order of the prop­er offi­cer deter­min­ing such duty, the amount of penal­ty liable to paid by such per­son under this sec­tion shall be 25% of the penal­ty so determined.

[Clause 82 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

4) The pro­vi­so to clause (b) of sec­tion 127A relat­ing to the pro­vi­sions of Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion is being amend­ed to delete the ref­er­ence to “in appeal or revi­sion, as the case may be” so as to pro­vide that when any pro­ceed­ing is referred back, whether in appeal or revi­sion or oth­er­wise, by any court, Appel­late Tri­bunal Author­i­ty or any oth­er author­i­ty to the adju­di­cat­ing author­i­ty for a fresh adju­di­ca­tion or deci­sion, then such case shall not be enti­tled for settlement.

[Clause 83 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

5) Sub-sec­tion (1A) to Sec­tion 127B pro­vides that in case of appli­ca­tions made pri­or to 1st day of June 2007, and where no order under sec­tion 127C (1) has been made before said date, the appli­cant shall pay the amount so ordered by the Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion with­in thir­ty days from 1st day of June 2007 fail­ing which his appli­ca­tion shall be liable to be reject­ed. The actu­al oper­a­tion of the said sec­tion pro­vid­ed for the pay­ments to be made with­in thir­ty days from 1st day of June 2007. Hence, the said sec­tion has become redun­dant and is being omitted.

[Clause 84 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

6) Sub-sec­tion (6) of sec­tion 127C pro­vides that in respect of the appli­ca­tions filed before 31st day of May, 2007, Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion shall pass the final order of set­tle­ment under sub-sec­tion (5) of sec­tion 127C lat­est by 29th Feb­ru­ary 2008 and in cas­es filed after 31st day of May, 2007, with­in nine months. Since all the appli­ca­tions filed before 31st day of May, 2007 shall have been nec­es­sar­i­ly dis­posed of by 29th day of 2008, the ref­er­ence to the said dates have become redun­dant. There­fore, the said sub-sec­tion is being amend­ed so as to omit the phrase “in respect of an appli­ca­tion filed on or before the 31st day of May, 2007, lat­er than the 29th day of Feb­ru­ary, 2008 and in respect of appli­ca­tion made on or after the 1st day of June, 2007”.

[Clause 85 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

7) Sec­tion 127E pro­vides that Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion can reopen the com­plet­ed pro­ceed­ings in cer­tain con­di­tions. As per the first pro­vi­so to the said sec­tion no pro­ceed­ings can be reopened after five years from the date of appli­ca­tion, and as per sec­ond pro­vi­so to the said sec­tion Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion can­not reopen any pro­ceed­ings in respect of an appli­ca­tion made after 1st day of June 2007. Thus, Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion has no pow­ers to reopen any com­plet­ed pro­ceed­ings after expiry of five years from 1st day of June 2007, thus mak­ing this sec­tion redun­dant. There­fore, this sec­tion is being omitted.

[Clause 86 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

8) Expla­na­tion to sub-sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 127H pro­vides that in respect of the appli­ca­tions filed on or before 31st day of May 2007, Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion shall decide the appli­ca­tions as if the amend­ments made in the said sec­tion were not in force. Since all the appli­ca­tions filed by 31st day of May, 2007 have nec­es­sary been dis­posed of by 29th day of Feb­ru­ary 2008, the said expla­na­tion has become redun­dant. Hence, the said Expla­na­tion is being omitted.

[Clause 87 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

9) Sec­tion 127L pro­vides the sit­u­a­tions in which the per­son in whose case the order has been passed by the Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion can­not again approach the Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion. When the said sec­tion was amend­ed in 2007, the said sec­tion made dis­tinc­tion in respect of the orders passed pri­or the com­mence­ment of sec­tion 102 of the Finance Act, 2007 and after that. In respect of the cas­es decid­ed after the said com­mence­ment, the appli­cant was barred from mak­ing sub­se­quent appli­ca­tions, where­as in the cas­es decid­ed pri­or to that he could have made the appli­ca­tion if his case was not cov­ered by any of the claus­es men­tioned in sub-sec­tion (1). How­ev­er, vide the amend­ments made by the Finance Act, 2010, even in cas­es decid­ed after com­mence­ment of sec­tion 102 of the Finance Act, 2007 the appli­cant was allowed to approach Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion if not hit by any of the claus­es to sub-sec­tion (1). Thus, clause (i) and (ii) of sub-sec­tion (1) to sec­tion 127L are being amend­ed so as to delete the phrase “passed under sub-sec­tion (7) of the sec­tion 127C, as it stood imme­di­ate­ly before the com­mence­ment of sec­tion 102 of the Finance Act, 2007 (22 of 2007) or sub-sec­tion (5) of the sec­tion 32F” as the same have become redundant.

[Clause 88 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

AMENDMENT IN THE FIRST SCHEDULE TO THE CUSTOMS TARIFF ACT, 1975:

1) The tar­iff rate of basic cus­toms duty on bitu­mi­nous coal is being reduced from 55% to 10%.

2) The tar­iff rate of basic cus­toms duty on goods falling under all the tar­iff items of Chap­ters 72 and 73 that is iron and steel and arti­cles of iron & steel, is being increased from 10 to 15%. How­ev­er, there is no change in the exist­ing effec­tive rates of basic cus­toms duty on these goods.

3) The tar­iff rate of basic cus­toms duty on goods falling under all the tar­iff items of head­ing 8702 that is motor vehi­cles for the trans­port of ten or more per­sons, includ­ing the dri­ver and 8704 that is motor vehi­cles for the trans­port of goods, is being increased from 10% to 40%. This change will come into effect imme­di­ate­ly owing to a dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931. The effec­tive Basic cus­toms duty on Com­mer­cial Vehi­cles is being increased from 10% to 20%. How­ev­er, cus­toms duty on com­mer­cial vehi­cles in Com­plete­ly Knocked Down (CKD) kit and elec­tri­cal­ly oper­at­ed vehi­cles includ­ing those in CKD con­di­tion will con­tin­ue to be at 10%.

[Clause 89 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

AMENDMENTS IN THE CENTRAL EXCISE ACT, 1944:

1) Sub sec­tion (3) of Sec­tion 3A, which empow­ers the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment to charge excise duty on the basis of capac­i­ty of pro­duc­tion in respect of noti­fied goods, is being amend­ed so as to insert an Expla­na­tion to pro­vide that fac­tor rel­e­vant to pro­duc­tion includes fac­tors rel­e­vant to pro­duc­tion, so as to enable the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment to spec­i­fy more than one fac­tor rel­e­vant to the pro­duc­tion of such goods. This amend­ment will come into effect imme­di­ate­ly owing to a dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931.

[Clause 90 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

2) Sec­tion 11A is being amend­ed so as to:

(i) Remove from the statute pro­vi­sions relat­ing to the cat­e­go­ry of cas­es where fraud, col­lu­sion, will­ful mis-state­ment, etc. is involved but the trans­ac­tion is record­ed in the spec­i­fied record so as to bring uni­for­mi­ty in treat­ment of all such cas­es irre­spec­tive of whether the trans­ac­tion is so record­ed or not;

(ii) Amend the pro­vi­sion relat­ing to rel­e­vant date to pro­vide def­i­n­i­tion of rel­e­vant date in respect of cas­es where a return is not filed on the due date and cas­es where only inter­est is required to be recovered.

(iii) Pro­vide that the pro­vi­sions of sec­tion 11A shall not apply to cas­es where the non-pay­ment or short pay­ment of duty is reflect­ed in the peri­od­ic returns filed and that in such cas­es recov­ery of duty shall be made in such man­ner as may be pre­scribed in the rules.

[Clause 91 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

3) Sec­tion 11AC is being sub­sti­tut­ed so as to ratio­nal­ize the penal­ty as follows:

(i) in cas­es not involv­ing fraud or col­lu­sion or wil­ful mis-state­ment or sup­pres­sion of facts or con­tra­ven­tion of any pro­vi­sion of the Act or rules with the intent to evade pay­ment of excise duty, in the fol­low­ing manner,-

a) in addi­tion to the duty as deter­mined under sub-sec­tion (10) of sec­tion 11A, a penal­ty not exceed­ing 10% of the duty so deter­mined or ₹ 5000 whichev­er is high­er shall be payable;

b) if duty and inter­est payable there­on under sec­tion 11AA is paid either before issue of show cause notice or with­in 30 days of issue of show cause notice, no penal­ty shall be payable and all pro­ceed­ings in respect of said duty and inter­est shall be deemed to be concluded;

c) if duty as deter­mined under sub-sec­tion (10) of sec­tion 11A and inter­est payable there­on under sec­tion 11AA is paid with­in 30 days of the date of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of order of the Cen­tral Excise Offi­cer who has deter­mined such duty, the amount of penal­ty shall be equal to 25% of the penal­ty so imposed, pro­vid­ed that such reduced penal­ty is also paid with­in 30 days of the date of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of such order.

(ii) in cas­es involv­ing fraud or col­lu­sion or wil­ful mis-state­ment of sup­pres­sion of facts or con­tra­ven­tion of any pro­vi­sion of the Act or rules with the intent to evade pay­ment of excise duty, in the fol­low­ing manner,-

a) in addi­tion to the duty as deter­mined under sub-sec­tion (10) of sec­tion 11A, a penal­ty equal to the duty so deter­mined shall be payable. In respect of cas­es where the details relat­ing to such trans­ac­tions are record­ed in the spec­i­fied record for the peri­od begin­ning with 8th April, 2011 and upto the date of assent to the Finance Bill, 2015, the penal­ty payable shall be 50% of the duty so determined.

b) if duty and inter­est payable there­on under sec­tion 11AA is paid with­in 30 days of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of show cause notice, the amount of penal­ty payable shall be 15% of the duty demand­ed, pro­vid­ed that such reduced penal­ty is also paid with­in 30 days of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of show cause notice and all pro­ceed­ings in respect of said duty, inter­est and penal­ty shall be deemed to be concluded;

c) if duty as deter­mined under sub-sec­tion (10) of sec­tion 11A and inter­est payable there­on under sec­tion 11AA is paid with­in 30 days of the date of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of order of the Cen­tral Excise Offi­cer who has deter­mined such duty, the amount of penal­ty shall be equal to 25% of the duty so deter­mined, pro­vid­ed that such reduced penal­ty is also paid with­in 30 days of the date of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of such order; and

(iii) (a) If the duty amount gets mod­i­fied in any appel­late pro­ceed­ing, then the penal­ty amount men­tioned in (ii) (a) above and inter­est shall also stand mod­i­fied accord­ing­ly. Where the duty amount is increased in the appel­late pro­ceed­ings, the ben­e­fit of reduced penal­ty as spec­i­fied shall be admis­si­ble if duty, inter­est and reduced penal­ty in rela­tion to such increased amount is paid with­in 30 days of such appel­late order.

(b) Cas­es where no show cause notice has been issued pri­or to the date on which the Finance Bill, 2015 receives the assent of the Pres­i­dent, shall be gov­erned by pro­vi­sions of sec­tion 11AC as amended.

© Pro­ceed­ings in the pend­ing show cause notices can be closed — (i) on pay­ment of duty, inter­est and penal­ty @ 15% of the duty in cas­es involv­ing fraud, col­lu­sion, will­ful mis-state­ment, etc. and (ii) on pay­ment of duty and inter­est in cas­es not involv­ing fraud, col­lu­sion, will­ful mis-state­ment, etc., with­in 30 days of the Finance Bill, 2015 receiv­ing the assent of the Pres­i­dent. In all cas­es where show cause notices are adju­di­cat­ed after the Finance Bill, 2015 receives the assent of the Pres­i­dent, reduced penal­ty @ 25% of the duty in cas­es involv­ing fraud, col­lu­sion, will­ful mis-state­ment, etc. and 25% of the penal­ty imposed in cas­es not involv­ing fraud, col­lu­sion, will­ful mis-state­ment, etc. can be paid with­in 30 days of com­mu­ni­ca­tion of the adju­di­ca­tion order if the duty, inter­est and penal­ty is paid with­in such time.

[Clause 92 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

4) The pro­vi­so to sub-sec­tion © of sec­tion 31 relat­ing to the pro­vi­sions of Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion is being amend­ed to delete the ref­er­ence to “in appeal or revi­sion, as the case may be” so as to pro­vide that when any pro­ceed­ing is referred back, whether in appeal or revi­sion or oth­er­wise, by any court, Appel­late Tri­bunal Author­i­ty or any oth­er author­i­ty to the adju­di­cat­ing author­i­ty for a fresh adju­di­ca­tion or deci­sion, then such case shall not be enti­tled for settlement.

[Clause 93 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

5) The pro­vi­so to sub-sec­tion (3) of sec­tion 32 pro­vides that where a Mem­ber of the Cen­tral Board of Excise & Cus­toms is appoint­ed as the Chair­man, Vice Chair­man or Mem­ber of the Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion, he shall cease to be a mem­ber of the Board. As per the amend­ed Cus­toms and Cen­tral Excise Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion (Recruit­ment and Con­di­tions of Ser­vice of Chair­man, Vice Chair­man and Mem­bers) Rules, 2000, Mem­bers of the Board are not eli­gi­ble to be Mem­ber of the Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion. Hence, the pro­vi­so is redun­dant and is being omitted.

[Clause 94 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

6) Sec­tion 32B is being amend­ed so as to enable Vice Chair­man or Mem­ber of the Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion to offi­ci­ate as Chair­man in the absence of the Chair­man of the Set­tle­ment Commission.

[Clause 95 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

7) Sub-sec­tion (1A) to sec­tion 32E pro­vides that in case of appli­ca­tions made pri­or to 1st day of June 2007, and where no order under sec­tion 32F (1) has been made before said date or appli­cant has not paid the amount so ordered by the Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion shall with­in thir­ty days from 1st day of June 2007 pay the accept­ed duty lia­bil­i­ty fail­ing which his appli­ca­tion shall be liable to be reject­ed. Since the actu­al oper­a­tion of the said sec­tion pro­vides for the pay­ments to be made with­in thir­ty days from 1st day of June 2007, the said sub-sec­tion has become redun­dant and is being omitted.

[Clause 96 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

8) Sub-sec­tion (6) of sec­tion 32F pro­vides that in respect of the appli­ca­tions filed before 31st day of May, 2007, Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion shall pass the final order of set­tle­ment under sub-sec­tion (5) of sec­tion 32F lat­est by 29th Feb­ru­ary 2008 and in cas­es filed after 31st day of May, 2007, with­in nine months. Since all the appli­ca­tions filed before 31st day of May, 2007 shall have been nec­es­sar­i­ly dis­posed of by 29th day of 2008, the ref­er­ence to the said dates have become redun­dant. There­fore, the said sub-sec­tion has been amend­ed so as to omit the phrase “in respect of an appli­ca­tion filed on or before the 31st day of May, 2007, lat­er than the 29th day of Feb­ru­ary, 2008 and in respect of appli­ca­tion made on or after the 1st day of June, 2007”.

[Clause 97 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

9) Sec­tion 32H pro­vides that Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion can reopen the com­plet­ed pro­ceed­ings in cer­tain con­di­tions. As per the first pro­vi­so to the said sec­tion no pro­ceed­ings can be reopened after five years from the date of appli­ca­tion, and as per sec­ond pro­vi­so to the said sec­tion Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion can­not reopen any pro­ceed­ings in respect of an appli­ca­tion made after 1st day of June 2007. Thus, Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion has no pow­ers to reopen any com­plet­ed pro­ceed­ings after expiry of five years from 1st day of June 2007, thus mak­ing this sec­tion redun­dant. There­fore, this sec­tion is being omitted.

[Clause 98 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

10) Expla­na­tion to sub-sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 32K pro­vides that in respect of the appli­ca­tions filed on or before 31st day of May 2007, Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion shall decide the appli­ca­tions as if the amend­ments made in the said sec­tion were not in force. Since all the appli­ca­tions filed by 31st day of May, 2007 have nec­es­sar­i­ly been dis­posed of by 29th day of Feb­ru­ary 2008, the said Expla­na­tion has become redun­dant and hence, is being omitted.

[Clause 99 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

11) Sec­tion 32O pro­vides the sit­u­a­tions in which the per­son in whose case the order has been passed by the Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion can­not again approach the Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion. When the said sec­tion was amend­ed in 2007, the said sec­tion made dis­tinc­tion in respect of the orders passed pri­or the com­mence­ment of sec­tion 122 of the Finance Act, 2007 and after that. In respect of the cas­es decid­ed after the said com­mence­ment, the appli­cant was barred from mak­ing sub­se­quent appli­ca­tions, where­as in the cas­es decid­ed pri­or to that he could have made the appli­ca­tion if his case was not cov­ered by any of the claus­es men­tioned in sub-sec­tion (1). How­ev­er vide the amend­ments made by the Finance Act, 2010, even in cas­es decid­ed after com­mence­ment of sec­tion 122 of the Finance Act, 2007 the appli­cant was allowed to approach Set­tle­ment Com­mis­sion if not hit by any of the claus­es to sub-sec­tion (1). Thus, claus­es (i) and (ii) of sub-sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 32O are being amend­ed so as to omit the phrase “passed under sub-sec­tion (7) of the sec­tion 32F, as it stood imme­di­ate­ly before the com­mence­ment of sec­tion 122 of the Finance Act, 2007 (22 of 2007) or sub-sec­tion (5) of the sec­tion 32F” as the same have become redundant.

[Clause 100 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

12) Sub-sec­tions (4) and (5) of sec­tion 37 are being amend­ed so as to increase the penal­ty from ₹ 2000 to ₹ 5000.

[Clause 101 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

13) S.No.205A of noti­fi­ca­tion No.12/2012-Central Excise dat­ed 17–3‑2012 exempts rail­way or tramway track con­struc­tion mate­r­i­al of iron and steel from pay­ment of excise duty on the val­ue of rails, sub­ject to con­di­tion that such rails have suf­fered excise duty and no cred­it of duty paid on them is tak­en under the Cen­vat Cred­it Rules, 2004. This exemp­tion is being made applic­a­ble ret­ro­spec­tive­ly for the peri­od from 17.03.2012 to 02.02.2014.

[Clause 102 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

14) The Third Sched­ule to the Cen­tral Excise Act, 1944 is being amend­ed so as to include there­in all goods falling under Chap­ter sub-head­ing 2101 20, all goods falling under Chap­ter sub-head­ing 2202, and to amend the entry relat­ed to S.No.94. These amend­ments will come into effect imme­di­ate­ly owing to a dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931.

[Clause 103 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

AMENDMENTS IN THE FIRST SCHEDULE TO THE CENTRAL EXCISE TARIFF ACT, 1985:

1) The stan­dard ad val­orem rate of duty of excise (i.e. CENVAT) is being increased from 12% to 12.5%.

2) Duty of excise on “waters, includ­ing min­er­al waters and aer­at­ed waters, con­tain­ing added sug­ar or oth­er sweet­en­ing mat­ter or flavoured” falling under Chap­ter sub-head­ing 2202 10 is being increased from 12% to 18%.

3) Duty of excise on cig­a­rettes is being increased by 25% for cig­a­rettes of length not exceed­ing 65 mm and by 15% for cig­a­rettes of oth­er lengths. Increase in are also pro­posed on cig­ars, che­roots and cigarillos.

4) Excise duty on cut tobac­co is being increased from ₹ 60 per kg to ₹ 70 per kg.

5) Tar­iff rate of excise duty on goods falling under Chap­ter sub-head­ing 2523 29 is being increased from ₹ 900 per tonne to ₹ 1000 per tonne.

6) Tar­iff rate of excise duty on high speed diesel (HSD) falling under tar­iff item 2710 19 30 is being increased from 14% + ₹ 5 per litre to 14% + ₹ 15 per litre. How­ev­er, there is no change in the aggre­gate of var­i­ous duties of excise on high speed diesel (HSD).

7) Tar­iff rate of excise duty on all goods falling under tar­iff item 3923 21 00 and Chap­ter sub-head­ing 3923 29 is being increased from 12% to 18%.

[Clause 104 of the Finance Bill, 2015 refers]

The above changes will come into effect imme­di­ate­ly owing to a dec­la­ra­tion under the Pro­vi­sion­al Col­lec­tion of Tax­es Act, 1931.

AMENDMENTS IN CENTRAL EXCISE RULES, 2002 AND CENVAT CREDIT RULES, 2004

1) Amend­ments in Cen­tral Excise Rules (CER), 2002 and CENVAT Cred­it Rules (CCR), 2004 are being simul­ta­ne­ous­ly being done to pro­vide for-

(i) Direct dis­patch of goods to reg­is­tered dealer’s/ reg­is­tered importer’s cus­tomers with­out first bring­ing them to the dealer’s / importer’s reg­is­tered premis­es sub­ject to the con­di­tions spec­i­fied there­in (Rule 11 of CER and Rule 4 of CCR refers),

(ii) Direct dis­patch of inputs and cap­i­tal goods to job work­er with­out first bring­ing them to the manufacturer’s /output ser­vice provider’s premis­es sub­ject to the con­di­tions spec­i­fied there­in (Rule 11 of CER and Rule 4 of CCR refers),

(iii) Def­i­n­i­tion of “export goods” (rule 5 of CCR refers) and “export” (rule 18 of CER refers),

(iv) Appli­ca­tion of cer­tain pro­vi­sions of these rules, present­ly applic­a­ble to the reg­is­tered deal­ers, to apply to the reg­is­tered importers also.

2) Cen­tral Excise Rules, 2002 are also being amend­ed to pro­vide for issue of dig­i­tal­ly signed invoic­es and preser­va­tion of records in elec­tron­ic form by a man­u­fac­tur­er (Rule 10 and 11 of CER refers).

3) CENVAT Cred­it Rules, 2004 are also being amend­ed to -

(i) Increase the time lim­it for tak­ing CENVAT cred­it on inputs and input ser­vices from the present six months to one year (Rule 4 of CCR refers),

(ii) Increase the time lim­it fir return of Cap­i­tal Goods from a job work­er from the present six months to two years (Rule 4 of CCR refers),

(iii) Make pro­vi­sion relat­ing to rever­sal for CENVAT Cred­it in rule 6, present­ly applic­a­ble to exempt goods and ser­vices, applic­a­ble to non-excis­able goods also,

(iv) Pro­vide for recov­ery of CENVAT Cred­it tak­en but NOT uti­lized (rule 14 refers). Fur­ther, the man­ner of deter­min­ing uti­liza­tion of Cred­it is also being pro­vid­ed in the rule itself.

[Noti­fi­ca­tion No.8/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) and No.6/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) both dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refer]

4) Reg­is­tra­tion process in Cen­tral excise is being sim­pli­fied to ensure that reg­is­tra­tion is grant­ed with­in two work­ing days of the receipt of a duly com­plet­ed appli­ca­tion form. Ver­i­fi­ca­tion of doc­u­ments and premis­es, as the case may be, shall be car­ried out after the grant of the reg­is­tra­tion. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.7/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) dat­ed 1st March, 2015 and Cir­cu­lar No.997/4/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 28th Feb­ru­ary, 2015 issued in this regard may be referred for details of the sim­pli­fied process.

5) Cir­cu­lar No.996/3//2015-Central Excise dat­ed 28th Feb­ru­ary, 2015 is being issued regard­ing Gar­nishee pro­vi­sions and recov­ery of arrears in install­ments and the pro­ce­dure to be fol­lowed in this regard.

6) Cir­cu­lar No.999/6/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 28th Feb­ru­ary, 2015 is being issued to clar­i­fy the scope of the term “place of removal” in case of export of goods by Man­u­fac­tur­ers exporters as well as Mer­chants Exporters.

7) Cir­cu­lar No.998/5/2015-Central Excise dat­ed 28th Feb­ru­ary, 2015 is being issued direct­ing that appli­ca­tion for with­draw­al of pros­e­cu­tion be filed in accor­dance with law where the qua­si-judi­cial pro­ceed­ings on iden­ti­cal set of facts have not been upheld and same has attained finality.

MISCELLANEOUS

1) The scheme of Advance Rul­ing is being extend­ed to Res­i­dent firm in Cen­tral Excise and Cus­toms. Noti­fi­ca­tion No.11/2015-Central Excise (N.T.) and No.27/2015-Customs (N.T.) both dat­ed 1st March, 2015 refer.

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