This tax alert summarises recent Notifications [1] issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) extending the validity of various exemptions provided under Section 25(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 (Customs Act).
Vide Finance Act 2021, Section 25(4A) was inserted to provide that all the conditional exemptions granted under Section 25(1) shall be valid upto 31 March falling immediately after two years from the date of such grant, unless otherwise specified, varied or rescinded.
Further, in case of conditional exemption which was in force on the date on which Finance Bill, 2021 received assent of the President, the said period of two years was to be considered from 1 February 2021. Accordingly, validity of many exemptions were to expire on 31 March 2023.
Last year, several notifications were issued to extend the validity of most of such exemptions till 31 March 2024.
Vide recent Notifications, exemption on import of various goods, which would have lapsed on 31 March 2024, have been further extended till 30 September 2024.
Comments:
It is relevant to note that there are still certain exemptions which seems to be expiring on 31 March 2024 and have not been extended till 30 September 2024.
[1] Notifications No. 06/2024 and 07/2024-Customs dated 29 January 2024