Today, the Union Budget was presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who proposed the fixation of  time limit for provisional assessment under Customs Act, 1962.

Presently, the Customs Act, 1962 does not provide any time limit to finalize Provisional Assessments leading to uncertainty and cost to trade. As a measure of promoting ease of doing business, the Finance Minister proposed to fix a time-limit of two years, extendable by a year, for finalising the provisional assessment.

The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to introduce a new provision that will enable importers or exporters, after clearance of goods, to voluntarily declare material facts and pay duty with interest but without penalty. This will incentivise voluntary compliance.  However, this will not apply in cases where the department has already initiated audit or investigation proceedings.

For industry to better plan their imports, it was proposed to extend the time limit for the end-use of imported inputs in the relevant rules, from six months to one year. This will provide operational flexibility in view of cost and uncertainty of supply. Further, such importers will now have to file only quarterly statements instead of a monthly statement. 

Official Copy Of Budget Documents

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