'No time limit for using duty-free inputs to make finished goods'

We procure our domestic inputs required for export production under notification 43/2001-CE dated June 26, 2001. Is there any time limit within which we have to use the inputs for manufacture and export of the finished products?
The said notification 43/2001-CE stipulates a condition that provisions of Central Excise (Removal of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty for Manufacture of Excisable Goods) Rules, 2001 shall be followed. Neither the said notification nor the said Rules mention anything about any time limit within which the goods procured under the said notification without payment of duty must be used.
 
Can we import machinery under advance authorisation for the purpose of repairs and re-export?

No. As per notification no. 18/2015-Cus dated April 1, 2015, under advance authorisation you can import only (a) raw materials, components, intermediates, consumables, catalysts and parts which are required for manufacture of the resultant product; (b) mandatory spares within a value limit of 10 per cent of the value of the authorisation which are required to be exported along with the resultant product; (c) fuel required for manufacture of the resultant product; and (d) packaging materials required for packing the resultant product.

For our supply of goods against International Competitive Bidding (ICB) to projects or purposes for which import is permitted at zero customs duty, we have been clearing our goods claiming exemption under S. No. 336 of exemption notification 12/2012-CE dated March 17, 2012. Our excise authorities were accepting Project Authority Certificate (PAC) issued in accordance with Appendix-27 of the Handbook of Procedures, Vol. 1 (HB-1) as a valid document to establish our eligibility for exemption. Recently, however, they are saying that we need to produce the documents mentioned in the related Customs exemption notification 12/2012-Cus dated March 17, 2012. When the PAC clearly says that our supplies are against ICB, are we required to submit any more documents?

The said S. No. 336 grants exemption to all goods supplied against ICB subject to fulfilment of condition no. 41 annexed to the said notification no. 12/2012-CE. This condition allowed the exemption if the goods are exempted from the duties of customs leviable under the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 and the additional duty of customs leviable under section 3 of the said Customs Tariff Act, when imported into India. No document had been stipulated to establish fulfilment of the condition but at a practical level, the excise authorities used to accept PAC as a valid document, if it certified that the goods are supplied against ICB and that the supplies are to be made to a project/purpose for which import is permitted at zero customs duty.

This condition no. 41 was amended on March 1, 2015 (notification 12/2015-CE), adding ‘provided that if the goods when imported into India are so exempt from the said duties of customs subject to certain conditions under a notification issued under the Customs Act, 1962 then such conditions shall, mutadis mutndis, apply for the purposes of this exemption’. In view of this amendment, the demand of your excise authorities appears to be correct.