Gujarat High Court Allows Benefit Of Rebate Under RoDTEP Scheme to Sugar Exporter

The Gujarat High Court has allowed the benefit of rebate under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme to the sugar exporter.

The bench of Justice Bhargav D. Karia and Justice Niral R. Mehta has directed the respondent-department are directed to grant benefit of rebate under the RoDTEP scheme to the petitioners who have exported sugar with specific permission under the specific condition prescribed by the Directorate of Sugar as per Notification No.19/2015-20 dated 17th August 2021 and Clause 3 of paragraph 2 of the Notification No.76/2021-Customs (N.T.) dated 23rd September 2021.

The petitioner/assessee is in the business of export of sugar which is covered under the entry bearing ITC (HS) Code 17011490 and 17019990 under Open General License.

The department in the in exercise of its powers under Section 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 (FTDR Act) read with paragraph 1.02 of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), amended paragraph 4.01 of Chapter 4 to the FTP by inserting sub-paragraph (e) therein and added paragraphs 4.44 to 4.59 in Chapter 4 to the FTP.

According to the amendment, consequent insertions / additions were made for new scheme i.e. RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products) Scheme.

The petitioner was claiming / utilizing rebate under the RoDTEP scheme on export of sugar under the valid shipping bills as such rebate under the said RoDTEP scheme is in the form of transferrable duty credit / electronic scrips.

The department issued Notification No.10/2015- 2020 dated 24th May 2022, in exercise of its powers under Section 3 read with Section 5 of the FTDR Act, as amended, read with paragraph 1.02 of Chapter 1 to the FTP and paragraph 2.01 of Chapter 2 to the FTP read with Notification No.40/2015-20 dated 28th October 2022, whereby the export policy of sugar, particularly, products bearing ITC(HS) Code 17011490 and 17019990 at Serial No.93 of Chapter 17 of ITC (HS), Schedule 2 had been revised inasmuch as the same had been relegated to “restricted” category from 1st June 2022 till 31st October 2023. According to the petitioners, the amendment of the existing policy from free to revised policy of restricted is with policy conditions permitting export of sugar only with specific permission from the Directorate of Sugar.

The department denied the benefit of the RoDTEP scheme to the petitioners on the ground that according to the policy, export made by the petitioners falls under the restricted category.

The petitioner contended that they have exported sugar with the permission of the Directorate of Sugar. The attention was invited to the circulars issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, by which the conditions are prescribed for permitting exporters to export the sugar and allocation of the quota for export of sugar.

The court held that the department could not have denied the benefit of rebate under the RoDTEP scheme to the petitioners, more particularly, when the petitioners have exported product after fulfilling the conditions as prescribed by the Directorate of Sugar as well as the Notifications issued by the Central Government from time to time.

Case Details

Case Title: M/S Satyendra Packaging Limited Versus Union Of India

Case No.: R/Special Civil Application No. 3084 Of 2023 With R/Special Civil Application No. 3085 Of 2023

Date: 29/11/2023

Counsel For Petitioner: Abhishek A Rastogi

Counsel For Respondent: CB Gupta

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