Procedural Lapse not to take away Right to Claim any Benefit of MEIS Scheme, says Gujarat High Court – Non-EDI Ports Entitled to MEIS like EDI Ports

The Gujarat High Court ruled that the procedural lapse did not take away the right to claim any benefit of the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) scheme.

The unit of the petitioner, Inox India is located at Kandla Special Economic Zone and they are engaged in the manufacture and export of Cryogenic Tanks and Vessels and such other specially manufactured items as per the Special Economic Act and its allied rules and regulations.

The challenge in this petition is to the denial of rewards under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme based on technical objections and procedural infractions when the substantial benefits had accrued and available in favour of the petitioner. It is further the say of the petitioner that in Foreign Trade Policy and in Export Import Policy 2015-2020 there are certain rewards as this was a specific scheme by the Government of India introduced for the benefits of exporters and to encourage them since the same is meant for contributing to the earnings of the country.

The petitioner was granted the MEIS License for an amount of Rs. 21.34 lakhs against their exports already from their unit located at KASEZ against the shipping bill. Accordingly, under the license, reward under the MEIS at the rate of 2% from FOB value of export was the entitlement of the petitioner. It is also under the shipping bill exported two numbers of cryogenic tanks for liquefied gases.

The petitioner applied for the registration of license to the KASEZ on 22.04.2016, however, no positive response was received for a long time in this regard and eventually on 08.06.2016, the petitioner met the Development Commissioner of Kandla Special Economic Zone and apprise him of lapse of seven months where the benefits were not made available.

According to the petitioner, he received a letter suggesting that their authorization has been suspended until further clarification is received from the office of DGFT, New Delhi, on the aspect, whether such SEZ units which are non- Electronic Data Interface (EDI) ports can also receive such benefits on the shipping bills prior to June 1.06.2015 and that too, without declaration of the intent on the shipping bills.

The division bench of Justices Sonia Gokani and Sangeeta K.Vishen noticing that the declaration of intent on the shipping bill for claiming the benefit under the reward scheme is made mandatory w.e.f June 1, 2015 under the Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-20 or the Handbook of Procedure, 2015-20, held that there could be no exclusion of SEZ or non-EDI Port unit for availing the benefit.

The court said that it is also expected of the respondent authority to adopt an approach, giving progressive interpretation to all these provisions and the policy decisions rather than having a conventional outlook.