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TMI Blog2013 (6) TMI 681X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... m on 19-12-2006 to submit ARE-1 and BRC. Another query was raised on 23-3-2007 to submit ARE-1, buyer's order and BRC. Since the appellant did not respond to the said queries, the subject shipping bill was on 26-2-2009 scrolled out with zero drawback and set to history on 25-3-2009. Vide letter dated 9-4-2010, the appellant claimed refund of duty to the extent of Rs. 56,69,413/- in respect of shipping bill Nos. 5318141 and 5318142 both dated 25-8-2006, whereas it was noted that drawback to the tune of Rs. 19,98,617/- had already been paid vide scroll No. 1830/2006 against shipping bill No. 5318142, dated 12-7-2006. The appellant, thereafter submitted another letter dated 7-6-2010 and authorized Shri Paban Agarwal to follow up the case. Shri Agarwal vide letter dated 3-9-2010 submitted that they had timely filed supplementary claim and enclosed along with the letter dated 7-6-2010, the corresponding invoices and bank realization certificates duly endorsed by SBI. Again, vide letter dated 6-12-2010, the appellant submitted an application for supplementary claim and buyer's order. The lower authority has held, in view of the facts foregoing, that the date of filing the supplemen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... entary Claim. - (1) Where any exporter finds that the amount of drawback paid to him is less than what he is entitled to on the basis of the amount or rate of drawback determined by the Central Government or Commissioner of Central Excise or the Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise, as the case may be, he may prefer a supplementary claim in the form at Annexure III : Provided that the exporter shall prefer such supplementary claim within a period of three months, - (i) where the rate of drawback is determined or revised under Rule 3 or Rule 4, from the date of publication of such rate in the official Gazette; (ii) where the rate of drawback is determined or revised upward under Rule 6 or Rule 7, from the date of communicating the said rate to the person concerned; (iii) in all other cases, from the date of payment or settlement of the original drawback claim by the proper officer. Provided further that the aforesaid period of three months may be extended by the Assistant Commissioner of Customs or Deputy Commissioner of Customs for a further period of nine months on being satisfied ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... for finalization of any issue and parallel paper work would have to be carried on. In case a bill of entry is assessed on EDI system and no separate written intimation is sent on paper for duty payment, Commissioner (Appeals) has accepted such cases for appeal even when no paper work/order existed. By analogy, no paper intimation is required separately in this case. If exporter can file shipping bill on system, the excuse that they have no access to ice-gate cannot be accepted since they could always check status of their drawback online. 4.4 At para 6 of the order-in-appeal the Commissioner has pointed out that the appellant vide letter dated 9-4-2010 claimed refund for two shipping bills viz. 5318141 & 5318142 both dated 12-7-2006, (by misprint date of shipping bill in order-in-appeal is mentioned as 25-8-2006) when drawback to the tune of Rs. 19,98,617/- was already paid to the appellant vide scroll No. 1830/2006. This proves that the appellant was aware of the status of his claim against shipping bill No. 5318141 dated 12-7-2006 wherein the payment or settlement of drawback amount was scrolled with "zero" drawback by the proper officer but the exporter was negligent and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... andatorily replied back in the EDI system only; that no manual reply would not be entertained. It also stated that a pending drawback bill would be liable for rejection if the queries were not replied within 15 days. 5.5 The Assistant Commissioner has relied heavily on PN-02/2009 to reject the drawback claim of the respondent. It is humbly submitted that the PN-02/2009 has been erroneously relied upon by the Assistant Commissioner as not only did the SB 141 pertain to a prior date of 12-7-2006, but also the queries raised by the department were on prior dates, i.e. 19-12-2006 and 23-3-2007. Thus, the queries raised were almost two years prior to the PN-02/2009. It is noteworthy that no queries were raised to the respondents post the issue of PN-02/2009, requiring a reply necessarily in the EDI system. Therefore, it is submitted that rejection of respondent's drawback claim by the department on the ground of no response is erroneous and bad in law. 5.6 Admittedly, the respondent filed a supplementary claim for drawback under Rule 15 of the Drawback Rules in the prescribed form on 6-12-2010 as it did not receive the drawback claimed under said Shipping Bill. H ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d 7-3-2013. The hearing held on 7-3-2013 was attended by Shri S. Vasudevan, Advocate and Shri Sunanda Nag, AGM(Fin) SAIL on behalf of the respondent who reiterated the submissions made in their written reply. Nobody attended hearing on behalf of department. 7. Government has carefully gone through the relevant case records and perused the impugned order-in-original and order-in-appeal. 8. On perusal of records, Government observes that the M/s. Steel Authority of India Ltd. vide SB No. 5318141, dated 12-7-2006 exported 6342.290 MTs of prime mild steel concast billets (non-alloy) under Drawback Schedule Sr. No. 7207A claiming drawback @ 3% for Rs. 36,10,796/-. Queries dated 19-12-2006 and 23-3-2007 raised on EDI system were not replied by applicant. They did not respond even to public notice No. 2/2009, dated 9-1-2009. As such, the adjudicating authority scrolled out with zero drawback the said shipping bill and send the same to (sic) on 25-3-2009. It is admitted fact that supplementary drawback claim was initially filed on 9-4-2010 through the complete claim along with requisite document was filed much later on 6-12-2010. Original authority has rejected the said c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... (3) The date of filing of the supplementary claim for the purpose of Section 75A shall be the date of affixing the dated receipt stamp on such claims which are complete in all respects and for which an acknowledgement shall be issued in the form prescribed by the Commissioner of Customs. (4) (a) Claims which are not complete in all respects or are not accompanied by the required documents shall be returned to the claimant with a deficiency memo in the form prescribed by the Commissioner of Customs within fifteen days of submission and shall be deemed not to have been filed. (b) Where the exporter resubmits the supplementary claim after complying with the requirements specified in the deficiency memo, the same will be treated as a claim filed under sub-rule (1) for the purpose of Section 75A." 9.1 The said provisions stipulate that supplementary drawback claim is to be filed within 3 months of payment or settlement of the original drawback claim by proper office. This period of 3 months can be extended by AC/DC Custom for a further period of 9 months on being satisfied that exporter was prevented by sufficient cause from filing claim in time. In th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... per Rule 9 of the Customs, Central Excise Duties and Service Tax Drawback Rules, 1995, in order to determine the class and description of the goods for determining the amount of duties drawback and/ or verifying the correctness of the claim/information submitted. Please note that the queries have been given in the EDI system under these Rules. Since the shipping bill filed by the exporter are EDI shipping bills, the replies should also be given in the EDI system only and not in manually. In case some documents are required to be submitted, the same may be submitted in the drawback department and the receipt number may be given in the EDI reply in the query. However, no manual reply (without given the reply in the EDI system) shall be entertained. All the concerned exporters and CHAs are requested to submit their replies through EDI Service Centre at Custom House Kolkata and in case of sample they should be present for examination of the representative sample on any working day to facilitate early finalization of the drawback claims. If they are unable to submit the reply to the query and not present for sample examination within 15 days, the pending drawback claims will be liabl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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