A delegation led the Director General of Directorate General of Inspection, Customs and Central Excise, Government of India (GoI), P.K Mohanty, visited Bhutan, from May 13 to 22, for verification and qualification of the Excise Duty Refund (EDR) claim of the Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) for 2014.
During the signing ceremony of EDR, the Finance Minister, Namgay Dorji, said the Director General of Directorate General of Inspection, Customs and Central Excise, GoI, has been very supportive in clearing all the pending issues of EDR, releasing EDR on time and giving the correct rate on the refund.
Lyonpo Namgay Dorji also thanked the Indian Embassy for consenting to speed the bilateral issues, including EDR assessment in Bhutan.
“Ministry of Finance would like to look forward to work with DG of the Inspection, Customs and External Excise and request for the same support in future,” said the Finance Minister Namgay Dorji.
The meeting between the RGoB and GoI delegates that discussed and finalized the excise duty refund was held on May 22. The Bhutanese delegation was led by the Director, Department of Revenue and Customs, Yonten Namgyel.
A press release states the total excise duty refund agreed for the year 2014 is Nu 1.943 bn.
The release also states that during the meeting the RGoB delegation requested the release of the EDR claim for 2013 amounting to Nu 1.756 bn.
The release points out that the refund of excise duty has been increased by Nu 187mn from the previous year. The increase is attributed to the improved recording system by the Department of Revenue and Customs, and also due to maintenance of documents in a manner desired by GoI delegates. The increase is also attributed to the increase of imports from India,
The release also says that the refund of excise duty is made only on excisable commodities imported from India. Although most of the commodities are subject to levy of excise duty in India, there are specific exemptions issued by way of notifications by GOI on goods of special interests (petroleum products, metallic waste products, food items, tools, spares and accessories, medicine and medical equipment, etc.).
It also says that imports made by hydropower projects in Bhutan are exempted from excise duty at source and so no excise duty refund claims are made for imports made by these projects.
Apart from the above issue, other issues of mutual interests were also discussed. The GoI delegation called on the Finance Minister on May 20.