The Hindu Business Line : Customs, DGFT to exchange EDI shipping data digitally

THE Government has now decided that data relating to EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) shipping bills (for Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme) issued on or after October 1, 2005, from the 23 Customs-EDI Ports shall be exchanged between Customs and the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) Server on a digital platform.

Accordingly, the application procedure and verification/registration system for DEPB licences, which are based on EDI DEPB Shipping bills issued on or after October 1, 2005, have been clarified and made simpler by the Department of Commerce through a recent circular.

As per the latest DGFT instructions, all such DEPB applications should be made on the DGFT Web site only with a digital signature, and the DEPB licence fee should be submitted only through the EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) mode. It has been made clear that no manual DEPB applications in case of EDI DEPB Shipping bills issued on or after October 1, 2005 shall be permitted.

Exporters are also being advised not to club the EDI DEPB Shipping bills issued before October 1, 2005 and non-EDI Shipping bills with such DEPB e-commerce applications.The authorities concerned point out that details of the shipping bills issued after October 1, 2005 and received from the Customs Server will be segregated IEC-wise (importer-exporter code) by the DGFT Server and will be available on the DEPB e-commerce module of the IEC-holder.

Exporters are required to link the EDI shipping bills in the DEPB e-commerce application, and the export promotion/ EP copy of such EDI DEPB shipping bills issued on or after October 1, 2005 need not be submitted to DGFT offices while submitting claims for DEPB credit, said the DGFT circular.

Exporters, it is clarified, will have the option to submit the bank realisation certificate (in original) issued by the authorised dealer in paper form to the jurisdictional Regional Licensing Authority (RLA) at the counter/by post within five working days of electronic submission of the DEPB e-commerce application.

Alternatively, now they can also submit a digitally signed and scanned copy of the bank realisation certificate (BRC) along with the DEPB application on the DGFT Web site. It has been clarified that in cases where a scanned BRC copy has been submitted, a manual copy of the same need not be given.

The application electronically submitted on the DGFT site to the RLA with the non-transferability endorsement request shall be issued a DEPB licence accordingly, which will be sent to the Customs electronically. On submission of proof of realisation at a later date to the licensing authority, the DEPB licence will be endorsed with the transferability clause, and an amendment message will also be transmitted electronically to the Customs through the message exchange system.

Exporters will also not be required to submit a hard copy of such DEPB applications filed electronically on the DGFT Web site, and the RLA will finalise the DEPB claim based on the data submitted on the DEPB module.

However, the licensing authorities may at their discretion ask for such additional documents to satisfy themselves of the admissibility of the DEPB claim as per Foreign Trade Policy and Handbook of Procedures.

DEPB licences, however, will continue to be issued in paper form to enable the exporters to transfer the ownership of licences, and such licences need to be produced at the Port of Registration for debiting, and imports.

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