‘Drawee must indicate assent to bill of exchange by signing on the face of the instrument’

The drawee has not accepted the bill of exchange by signing on the face of the instrument, but has given a separate letter of acceptance. Is this in order? As per Section 7 of the Negotiable instruments Act, 1981, “after the drawee of a bill has signed his assent upon the bill, or, if there are more parts thereof than one, upon one of such parts, and delivered the same, or given notice of such signing to the holder or to some person on his behalf, he is called the ‘acceptor’”. Thus, the drawee is necessarily required to sign his assent on the face of the bill of exchange. The notice is only in lieu of delivery.

We refer to the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement notification no. 26/2000-Customs dated March 1, 2000. At S. No. 92 in list 3, column 4 gives the “portion of applied duty” as 100 per cent against Chapter heading 6116100. Does it mean 100 per cent exemption of basic custom duty or 100 per cent of basic custom duty to be applied (charged)?

It means exemption from 100 per cent of basic customs duty. However, condition no. 2 in the notification limits this concession to three million pieces.

Declaration of intent for claiming export benefits under Chapter 3 of FTP was made mandatory for all exporters with effect from January 1, 2011, through Public Notice no. 82 dated August 16, 2010. We were granted the benefits for shipments made during that period on December 28, 2011 and January 10, 2012 even though our shipping bills did not contain the declaration of intent. DGFT Policy Circular No.13 (RE2012)/2009-14 dated January 31, 2013 allowed Chapter 3 benefits even in cases where “Declaration of Intent” was not mentioned on shipping bills for shipments made between January 1, 2011 and June 2, 2011, provided the request for grant was filed before April 30, 2013. We have now received a show cause notice, stating that the Policy Circular of January 31, 2013 will not apply to FPS scrips issued before the date

of the circular. Please help us respond to the notice and the demand to surrender the benefits.

Policy Circular no. 13 is applicable for exports made between January 1, 2011 and June 2, 2011, provided the requests were made before April 30, 2013. It automatically regularises cases, where the benefits were allowed earlier, in cases where the shipping bills did not contain the declaration of intent.

We had taken an EPCG Authorisation and have imported the capital goods. We have earned 85 per cent export obligation (EO) imposed, by rendering services, for which the capital goods imported under EPCG Authorisation have not been used at all. We have sought clarification from DGFT. Now, the EO period has expired. The Customs insists that we deposit the customs duty. If we deposit customs duty “under protest”, can we get it back if DGFT gives us a favourable clarification? How to pay duty under protest?

You can pay duty “under protest” by giving a protest letter and taking acknowledgement. You can claim refund of it, if it is subsequently established that the duty was not payable.