Case Law Details
In re BJ Services Company Middle East Ltd (CAAR Delhi)
M/s BJ Services Company Middle East Ltd, Survey No. 2301/818 and 2408/819, Ahmedabad Highway, Near Petrol Pump, Barmer, Rajasthan-344001, having IEC No. 0399032088 and PAN-AAACB8529N (applicant, in short) has filed an application dated 21.12.2022, received on 07.01.2023, seeking advance ruling under section 28-H of the Customs Act, 1962, before the Customs Authority for Advance Rulings, New Delhi (CAAR, New Delhi in short). The application was accordingly registered under Serial No. 29/2022 dated 07.01.2023.
2. Re-import of goods/equipment from a Special Economic Zone (SEZ)/Free Trade Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) to Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) is the proposed activity as stated in the application and the applicant vide the aforesaid application has sought ruling on the question of applicability of serial number 5 of Notification No. 45/2017-Cus. dated 30.06.2017 for such re-import of goods/equipment from a SEZ/FTWZ to DTA.
3. The applicant vide their application for advance rulings has inter-alia stated that, they are engaged in providing mining services or support services to mining to oil & gas exploration and production companies across India such as Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and Cairn India; in pursuance to providing the mining services or support services to mining, they will be importing equipment required for providing such services; the equipment being used for oil and gas exploration projects will be imported from outside India at a concessional rate of customs duty under serial number 404 of the Notification No. 50/2017—Customs dated 30.06.2017 on the basis of an essentiality certificate from the respective customer; the said certificate is issued by the customer with a stipulated condition in the contract to export the imported equipment post completion of contract; accordingly, the applicant upon completion of the said contract, would have to export the said equipment; where they foresee that the same equipment will be required for other contracts in India; the applicant will export the equipment to a Logistics Service Provider (LSP) located in a SEZ/ FTWZ; it is pertinent to note that the applicant will not avail any kind of duty incentives or benefits when this equipment is being sent from DTA to SEZ/FTWZ; subsequently, whenever the equipment would be required for a new contract, the applicant would re-import the equipment into DTA under serial number 404 of the Notification No. 50/2017 upon payment of concessional customs duty on the basis of an essentiality certificate issued by the new customer; the Ministry of Finance, vide serial no. 5 of the Notification No. 45/2017-Customs dated 30.06.2017 has exempted Basic Customs duty, IGST and Cess upon re-import of goods from outside into India, subject to the conditions that the same equipment has been reimported which was earlier exported, the importer is not a 100% EOU or unit of FTWZ, the equipment is not imported from any licensed warehouse under Customs and the equipment does not fall in the fourth schedule of the Central Excise Act 1944; on the basis of exemption under the Notification No. 45/2017, the applicant wishes to claim exemption from Basic Customs Duty, IGST and compensation cess; in view of the above, ruling on the following question has been sought:
“Whether the applicant is eligible to claim exemption from payment of customs duty, IGST and compensation cess on reimport of equipment from SEZ/FTWZ into DTA as per serial number 5 of the Notification No. 45/2017, considering the fact the equipment is the same that were brought from the DTA earlier and admitted into the SEZ/FTWZ?”
Please become a Premium member. If you are already a Premium member, login here to access the full content.
