Govt makes E-payment of customs duty mandatory

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SME Times News Bureau | 08 Sep, 2012
The government on Friday made electronic payment or E-Payment of customs duty mandatory in order to further reduce transaction cost of the importers.

Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) in a circular said, "It has been decided to make e-payment of duty mandatory for importers registered under Accredited Clients Programme and importers paying customs duty of one lakh rupees or more per Bill of Entry with effect from 17 September, 2012.

The CBEC has issued instructions advising all Chief Commissioners of Customs to give a wide publicity to enable trade to be ready in case any change in their software or any internal procedure for effecting E-payment is required.

"As a large number of taxpayers would be required to pay the taxes electronically, it is requested that importers, trade and industry may be provided all assistance so as to help them in adopting the new procedure," it said.

While reacting to the mandatory E-Payment for the importers, M Rafeeque Ahmed, President, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said that this measure will expedite the clearance of consignments expeditiously reducing the transaction time and cost.

Ahmed said that the ranking of India in "Doing Business Report 2012" in Trading Across Border segment is quite low and that shows that other countries are taking far revolutionary steps to make the exim transactions seamless.

However FIEO chief said, "We need to introduce EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) among all 13 partners by a firm date."

"So that fiscal interface between importers-exporters and statutory agencies are eliminated giving much relief on transaction cost front," he added.