Customs (Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty or for Specified End Use) Rules, 2022
Introduction:
(a) Customs (Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty or for Specified End Use) Rules, 2022 provide for procedural safeguards to ensure that the goods imported are used for the purpose and in accordance with the notification prescribing such Rules.
(b) Significant amendments were introduced in the Customs (Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty) Rules, 2017 in 2021 and March 2022, with a focus on automation and making the entire process contactless.
(c) Without altering the basic framework of the procedure, CBIC has now notified the Customs (Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty or for Specified End Use) Rules, 2022 (IGCRS Rules, 2022) vide Notification No. 74/2022-Customs (N.T.) dated 09.09.2022 superseding the existing Customs (Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty) Rules, 2017 w.e.f. 10th September 2022.
(d) These Rules further broaden the scope of IGCR to notifications other than exemption notifications and capture the intended purpose of import such as specified end use, supply to end use recipient, manufacture, exports etc mentioned in Customs Notifications with a focus on end to end automation.
Procedure in Brief:
Customs (Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty or for Specified End Use) Rules, 2022 apply to an importer who intends to avail the benefit of any notification prescribing such Rules and such benefit is dependent upon the use of the goods imported being covered by that notification for the manufacture of any commodity or provision of output service or being put to a specified end use.
(a) Under this Rule, the importer shall provide one-time prior information on the common portal, in Form IGCR-1 containing the particulars such as name and address of the importer, nature and description of goods imported, particulars of notification applicable on such import etc.
(b) For the ease of importers to know their jurisdictional Customs officer for the purpose of IGCRS, jurisdiction based mapping has been published on the CBIC website.
(c) On acceptance of the information by the jurisdictional officer on the portal, an Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty (IGCR) Identification Number (IIN) shall be generated against such information.
(d) The IIN number is quoted by the importer while filing the Bill of Entry in order to claim the benefit of the notification.
(e) Where a Bill of Entry is cleared for home consumption, the bond submitted by the importer gets debited automatically in the Customs automated system and the details shall be made available electronically to the jurisdictional Customs Officer.
(f) The importer shall submit a monthly statement on the common portal in the FORM IGCR-3 by the tenth day of the following month; provided that the importer may submit details of goods consumed in the FORM IGCR-3A at any point of time, for immediate recredit of the bond which shall become a part of the monthly statement of the subsequent month.
(g) The entire process is contactless and all information is provided by the importer through the common portal.
Salient changes in the Rules vis a vis IGCR Rules, 2017:
Circular 18/2022- Customs dated 10.09.2022 clarifies various aspects related to the rules:
(a) Clarifying the time period of utilization to be the time period for compliance as mentioned in the notification;
(b) A provision to extend the said period of utilization in certain cases for the reasons beyond the importer’s control;
(c) Scope of the IGCR procedure applicable to Specified End Use mentioned in Customs Notifications;
(d) Norms pertaining to Surety/Bank guarantee that needs to be furnished by Importers under the Rules;
(e) Aspects related to imports by Nominated Agencies importing gold / silver/ platinum under the schemes for replenishment or Export against supply by Nominated agencies;
(f) The forms appended to the Rules have been amended in order to capture the details of intended purpose of import such as details of end use recipient and supply made therein, exports etc.
References:
https://www.cbic.gov.in/resources//htdocs-cbec/customs/cs-act/ notifications/notfns-2022/cs-nt2022/csnt74-2022.pdf
https://taxinformation.cbic.gov.in/view-pdf/1003124/ENG/Circulars
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