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A82 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 372

Department for movement of each piece of equipment was going to be cumber-
some.
The Customs Authorities took prompt action once alerted to the issue,
and resolved it within two days. “In view of present COVID-19 crisis and re-
moval of mandatory warehousing in 2016, such endorsement can be done elec-
tronically over e-mail and acknowledgement can also he provided over e-mail
without the need for a physical visit to the Customs office,” the directorate gen-
eral of export promotion said in its reply to the industry on 25-3-2020.
This means that IT companies providing work from home facility to its
employees by allowing them to take laptops and desktops and other equipment
home, will be able to do so much faster.
To ensure the continuity of operations in India’s biggest foreign ex-
change earning sector, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
had on 24-3-2020 pushed the Home Ministry to allow certain senior management
of companies in the IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) space to operate from their
office premises. This included “employees who are classified as ‘mission critical’
and associated with ‘essential services’ by the top management of the company”
said the Ravi Shankar Prasad-led Ministry. Also, it wanted companies to be al-
lowed to self-certify which staff is mission critical.
However, the Home Ministry had refused the plan, arguing the difficul-
ties involved in compiling a list of designations which can be termed ‘mission
critical’, for thousands of IT/ITeS companies working in different capacities. It
had also pointed out that other industries may also demand the same.
Instead, it had pointed out that all ground staff dealing with loading,
transportation, and delivery has been allowed for e-commerce companies - cur-
rently classified critical to the sustainability of the ongoing 21 day lockdown. For
all other categories of privately held business, the Home Ministry has firmly
stated that most employees need to stay home.
On the other hand, with many online service providers based out of
SEZs, senior functionaries at the Export Promotion Council for EOUs & SEZs
(EPCES) on 26-3-2020 said they have been assured by the Commerce Department
that current restrictions on the staff movement will be progressively reduced by
next week.
[Source : Neha Alawadhi and Subhayan Chakraborty in Business Standard,
New Delhi, dated 27-3-2020]

Drug exporters urge RBI to extend deadline to pay dues by
6 months

Pharmaceutical Exporters have approached the RBI, asking it to extend
“at least” for six months their, deadline to pay bankers dues of as much as $ 600
million, claiming the industry has taken a hit during the ongoing novel corona-
virus outbreak.
The exporters fear failure to do so may lead to their businesses shutting
down, leading to shortages of several crucial medicines, the Chairperson of the
Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (PHARMEXCIL) told The
Indian Express, “...we wish to inform you that our member companies, which are
approximately 3,500 who generate value turnover of $ 50 billion divided equally

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