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Regarding Central Excise - Removal of goods under bond on AR3A procedure
- Amendment/ splitting of AR3A - Guidelines
Circular
No. 469dated 8th July 1999
It
has been reported to the Board that Oil companies clearing their products under
AR3A procedure are resorting to splitting/amendment of AR3A at the time removal
of goods. Such splitting is necessitated due to deviation from the original plan
of movement especially change of sailing schedule, lack of storage facility at
installations, urgent need of product to other locations etc. It is, therefore,
not possible to foresee such situations. Since, statutory provisions of Rule
156A of Central Excise Rules, 1944 and para 96 of Petroleum Manual does not
envisage amendment or splitting of AR3A prepared initially, it felt that
suitable procedure, backed with necessary instructions may be adopted to resolve
the issue.
2.
The matter has been examined. It is decided that while amending or
splitting the AR3A the following procedure may be followed in this regard:
The unit initiating the AR3A, in case
of any amendment or splitting shall submit a fresh AR3A splitting or amending
the original AR3A clearly giving the reference of the original AR3A and
enclosing the copy of the original AR3a which along with the amended/splinted
AR3A should be sent to the re-warehousing destination so that the officer
incharge of the destination warehouse does not face any problem in ascertaining
the actual quantity of the consignment cleared under the split or amended AR3A.
The officer incharge of the warehousing station after making necessary
entries in the fresh AR3A regarding the actual quantity warehoused shall return
the same back to the supplier.
North
East Exemption dated 9th July 1999
Regarding
exemption from excise duty on goods produced in the North East Region
I
am directed to say that the Government has decided to grant certain exemptions
from excise duty on goods produced in North East Region. The exemption
notification Nos. 32.99 and 33/99, both dated 8.7.1999, have been issued in this
regard.
Notification
No. 32/99 exempts all excisable goods that are manufactured in the two types of
industrial units mentioned in para 3 of the notification. These units are either
new units which have commenced their commercial production on or after 24.12.97,
of these are industrial units which have undertaken substantial by way of
increase in installed capacity by not less than 25%. The increase in capacity
should have been effective on or after 24.12.97.
It
may be noted that the industrial unit referred to above should be located in any
of the specific area mentioned in Annexure to the notification. In other words
if a industrial unit is located outside the Integrated Infrastructure
Development Centre (IIDC), Growth Centres, Export Promotion Industrial Parks,
etc., mentioned in the above Annexure, the benefit of exemption under
Notification No. 32/99 shall not be admissible.
As
regards the question whether a new industrial unit has commenced commercial
production on or after 24.12.97 or substantial expansion by 25% in installed
capacity has taken place a decision may be taken after examination of the
records and any other relevant information on this respect. In case of any doubt
the Commissioner of Central Excise may consult the Department of Industries of
the State Government for this purpose.
Notification
No. 33/99 has been issued to exempt specified goods manufactured by new
industrial units, or industrial units, which have undertaken substantial
expansion. The exemption contained in this notification is applicable to be
entire North East Region comprising of seven States. However, here also the
exemption is applicable only to new industrial units that have commenced
production on or after 24.12.1997 or to industrial units that undertaken
substantial expansion on or after 24.12.1997.
In
both the cases, the exemption shall be applicable for a period not exceeding 10
years. To illustrate, for an already existing industrial unit, which qualifies
for exemption, the benefit of exemption would be available for a period of 10
years starting from 8.7.1999. However, if a new unit commences commercial
production for instance, on 21.12.1999, the exemption would be available for a
period of 10 years starting from 21.12.1999.
It
may be observed that the benefit of exemption under Notification No. 32/99 or
33/99 is to be given effect by way of refund of the duty paid by the
manufacturer through the PLA. The refund is to be allowed every month, by the 15th
of the month. If there is any delay in verification of the claim for refund of
PLA duty, the Assistant Commissioner/ Deputy Commissioner may allow the refund
for that moth on provisional basis and thereafter adjustment, if necessary, may
be made in the refund of the subsequent month. This is to ensure that there are
no delays in sanctioning the refunds claims. It may be emphasised, at the cost
of the repetition that the refund is to be allowed only of the amount of duty
paid in the PLA and not of any amount paid through the Modvat account.
Notification
No. 48/99-CE (NT) dated 8.7.1999 has been issued to amend the Modvat rules. It
has been provided that even though the PLA duty would be refunded to the
manufacturers in terms of exemption notification No. 32/99 and 33/99, the users
of these products would be eligible to Modvat credit as usual. To illustrate if
a manufacturer of production Z has paid excise duty of Rs. 2500 from Modvat
account and Rs. 500 from PLA and another manufacturer uses X as inputs; the user
would be allowed Modvat credit of Rs. 3000.
Copies
of the notifications are enclosed. (Not enclosed on the website)
Any
difficult or doubt with regard to the implementation of the aforesaid
notifications may kindly be referred to the undersigned.
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