CIR. NO. 31/2003, DT. 01/04/2004

Electronic Commerce- Regarding

1. IEC Trade Returns

a. All the IEC holders were required to file their annual trade returns on imports/exports for the FY 2002-03 by 31st March 2004. The IEC trade returns were to be submitted online on the DGFT website www.nic.in/eximpol. A large number of IEC trade returns have been filed on our website. The IEC holders who have not submitted their annual trade returns for various reasons may do so immediately otherwise their IEC shall be deactivated via online message exchange with Customs.

b. The online module for submitting annual trade returns for FY 2003-04 shall be available for submission on the DGFT website from 15th April 2004. All the IEC holders are requested to file their trade returns online expeditiously.

2. Issuance of IEC for Proprietorship Concerns

a. It has been observed that multiple IECs are being issued by RLAs to Proprietorship Concerns having a single PAN. With effect from 01 April 2004, a single IEC shall be issued against a single PAN for all categories of applicants. However, to avoid any difficulty in carrying out their import/export activity, different Proprietorship Concerns having the same Proprietor and same PAN, shall be listed under a common single IEC as different branches and the name of the IEC holder shall be as given in the Income Tax PAN certificate. Necessary modifications in the IEC software are being carried out in this regard.

b. For past cases, where multiple IECs have been issued against a single PAN to Proprietorship Concerns having the same Proprietor and same PAN, detailed guidelines are being circulated to Regional Licensing Authorities regarding the manner in which such IECs need to be segregated and dealt with.

3. Submission of Online Applications

The facility for submitting online applications on the DGFT website is available for the benefit of the Exim community. Applications submitted online are given the benefit of a 50% reduction in licence fee. The online facility not only reduces the transaction costs to the exporter but also considerably improves the delivery of services provided by DGFT. To further facilitate the process, DGFT has integrated the facility of digital signature and electronic payment of licence fee in the online electronic data interchange module. DGFT has entered into an MOU with State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, HDFC Bank and UTI Bank for the Electronic Fund Transfer facility. Detailed guidelines on Digital Signature are also available on the DGFT website www.nic.in/eximpol at the link ‘ Click to get a Digital Certificate’ for the benefit of the Exim community.

With effect from 1st April 2004, applications (all categories) submitted online on the DGFT website with digital signatures only shall be given the benefit of 50% reduction in licence fee. However, till the system stabilises a physical copy of the application along with supporting documents shall also be submitted to the Regional Licensing Authorities. Parties filing applications on-line without digital signature will not be entitled to the facility of concessional fees.

(Ajay Srivastava)
Joint DGFT

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