Page 140 - ELT_1st July 2020_Vol 373_Part 1

50 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 373

and is duly registered with the Service Tax Department. The petitioner firm is
inter alia engaged in the manufacturing of derivatives of Castor Oils and clears its
final product to export and is also a certified Three Star Export House.
3. The Government of India introduced the Merchandise Exports From
India Scheme (hereinafter referred to as “the MEIS”) through the Foreign Trade
Policy (FTP) 2015-2020 with effect from 1-4-2015. It seeks to promote export of
notified goods manufactured/produced in India. The MEIS is a major export
promotion scheme implemented by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Earlier, there were five different kinds of duty scrips with varying conditions
attached to their use. Now, all these schemes have been merged into a single
scheme, namely the MEIS.
4. The rewards under the MEIS are payable as a percentage of realized
FOB value of covered exports, by way of the MEIS duty credit scrip. The scrip
can be transferred or used for payment of a number of duties/taxes, including
the customs duty/excise duty/service tax. Scrips and inputs imported under the
scrips are fully transferable. This has provided much flexibility to the exporters.
The earlier schemes had many conditions attached with the scrips about the us-
age and importability of items.
5. The respondents No. 2 and 3 consciously extended the MEIS scheme
to the units located in the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and it is made fully
transferable. The sole motive and intention to introduce this scheme in the nature
of reward/incentives is that it makes the exports competitive in the international
market, including Europe, the United States of America and Africa. These three
markets are covered under the scheme for all notified 5012 tariff lines. In order to
give a boost to exports from SEZs, it has been decided to extend the benefit of the
reward scheme to units located in SEZs which would benefit the manufacturing
sector in terms of both technology transfer and gainful employment.
6. The respondents No. 2 and 3 introduced the Scheme under
Chapter-3 of the Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-2020, which prescribes the procedure
for ‘Declaration of Intent’ on EDI and Non-EDI shipping bills for claiming re-
wards under the MEIS, including export of goods through courier or foreign post
offices using e-Commerce. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (hereinafter
referred to as “the Board”) issued Circular No. 14/2015-Cus., dated 20-4-2015,
prescribing the procedure for claiming benefits under said scheme.
7. The respondent No. 3 - The Director General of Foreign Trade
(DGFT), issued Public Notice No. 40/2015-2020, dated 9-10-2015, whereby eligi-
bility was granted under the MEIS to shipping bills, where declaration of intent
‘Y’ has not been marked and ‘N’ has been ticked inadvertently in the ‘reward
item box’ while filing shipping bills in Customs for exports made between 1-4-
2015 to 31-5-2015. Subsequently, the benefit was extended for a period beyond
31-5-2015 by Public Notice No. 47/2015-20, dated 8-12-2015. Thus, the condition
of the declaration has been relaxed from time to time even if it has been treated
as a mandatory condition.
8. The petitioner, by its application dated 21-12-2015, applied for the
MEIS for the exports made during the period between April 2015 to January 2016
and it came to be granted MEIS Licence No. 3719000578 against the exports made
from its factory.
9. The petitioner again applied for the MEIS for the exports made dur-
ing the period from April 2015 to January 2016, under separate applications. The
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