SME Chatroom: Anti-dumping duty on inputs payable on sales from SEZ to DTA

Business Standard brings you the fortnightly Q&A on SMEs

Q. As a SEZ unit, we import all our inputs required for manufacture duty-free and pay full customs duty on the finished goods that we sell in the DTA. Now, there is one input that is subject to anti-dumping duty. The Customs officer at the SEZ Customs station says that at the time of clearance of the finished goods in the DTA, we must pay the anti-dumping duty on that input used in manufacturing also. Is he right? If so, what is the relevant provision in the SEZ laws?

The Customs officer at the SEZ Customs station is right. The SEZ Act, 2005, or the SEZ Rules, 2006, do not deal with this particular aspect. You have to pay the anti-dumping duty in accordance with sub-section 2A of Section 9 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, which says that “notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) and sub-section (2), a notification issued under sub-section (1) or any anti-dumping duty imposed under sub-section (2) shall not apply to articles imported by a hundred per cent export-oriented undertaking or a unit in a special economic zone, unless,— (i) it is specifically made applicable in such notification or to such undertaking or unit; or (ii) such article is either cleared as such into the domestic tariff area or used in the manufacture of any goods that are cleared into the domestic tariff area, in which case, anti-dumping duty shall be imposed on that portion of the article so cleared or used, as was applicable when it was imported into India”.

 
Q. Is there any exemption of anti-dumping duty on the import of capital goods under EPCG authorisation?

No. The notification 16/2015-Cus dated April 1, 2015, exempts only the basic customs duty and IGST on goods imported under EPCG authorisation.
 
Q. We have imported inputs under advance authorisation after discharge of export obligation. Are we required to pay IGST on such imports and, if so, under what provisions?

If you did not avail of ITC on the inputs used in the manufacture of the export products, you don’t have to pay IGST. Also, if you had availed of ITC on the inputs used in the manufacture of the product exported and you furnish a bond to the Customs that you will use the imported inputs in your factory, or that of the supporting manufacturer for manufacture of and supply of taxable goods (other than nil-rated or fully-exempted supplies), then you need not pay IGST. Otherwise, you have to pay IGST. Please see conditions (vi(a) and vi(b) of the notification 18/2015-Cus dated April 1, 2015.

 
Q. Can we source goods from abroad on, say, 180 days’ credit, and sell on the high seas against lower credit of, say, 30 days? Is there any GST implication?

There is no bar against selling on the high seas at a lesser credit period. Also, such transactions are not treated as supply of goods under S.No. 8 (b) of Schedule III to the CGST Act, 2017. 


Business Standard invites readers’ SME queries related to GST, export and import matters. You can write to us at smechat@bsmail.in