|
The customs department has given a directive whereby
the importers are obliged to deposit cash/bank guarantee
to the extent of 25% of the value of the assessable
duty when the goods are kept in the bonded warehouse.
They have the option to get a revolving bond for the
higher amount. This bond will be debited by the duty
amount payable every time an item is bonded. For shipments
already imported and yet not de-bonded, the amount has
to be deposited for all such products inside the warehouse.
Wine is a sensitive item
The rule is equally applicable to private bonded public
warehouses like Veritas. However, the government owned
Central Warehousing Corporation is exempt. The rule
is applicable not only to wine but to all products defined
as sensitive items by the customs department and include,
besides wine, products like liquor, cigarettes, foodstuffs,
consumables like palm oil, tea, coffee, milk and milk
products; marble and granite etc.
Customs Circular No.20/96 dated April 4, 1996 issued
by the Board of Central Excise and Customs informed
the Commissioners of Customs that ‘No comprehensive
list of sensitive items should be drawn for the guidance
of the Commissioners’. It further advises them
that they should themselves decide what is sensitive,
based on the nature of commodity, rates of duties and
the licensing aspects involved.
Wine and liquor have been considered sensitive items
on many accounts. Recent reduction of duties from 264%
to about 160% (150% ++) on wine has not changed the
status. The government in fact stepped up its ‘sealing
the dealing’ action by making August 31 as the
last date for compliance, failing which ‘no inward
or outward bonding or de-bonding’ will be allowed.
Current Status on Bank Guarantees:
Products lying in the warehouse will have to suffer
a slow death and the wines landing at the docks will
die from the heat.. On persistent pleas of the importers,
the date was extended to 15th September. As of now,
the government has taken the liberal stand and allowed
them to deposit 60% of the guarantee applicable by September
30. In the meantime, the current dealings though not
stopped are on the slow track.
The importers are up in arms against the sudden tightening
of screws, especially when they are reeling under the
pressure of no sales in Maharashtra for almost three
months due to the new excise duty of 150% added after
ACD removal on July 3.
Comments a relatively newcomer who had made quick
progress in getting his wines listed in several premium
Mumbai hotels, where ‘the buyers are more knowledgeable
about wines and thus more objective and professional.
I had pending orders of Rs. 60 lakhs which have turned
into dust.’ ‘ Forget about the loss of profits,
I am now running around trying to arrange the bank guaranty’,
he adds with a sense of anger, frustration and helplessness.
These are just some of the moods which made several
importers I talked to, open up their bottled up anguish,
but with explicit assurance of anonymity. No one wants
the customs or excise department to single them out
though most of them are in unison.
Page
1 2 3
4 5
|
