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Export sops cost Govt Rs 70,877 cr last year: CAG

Duty foregone under various export promotion schemes during 2010-11 stood at Rs 70,877 crore, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in a report tabled in Parliament on Friday.

The amount is approximately 52 per cent of the total receipts of customs duty.

The report said sops were given under various export promotion schemes like advance licence, Duty Entitlement Pass Book, Export Promotion Capital Goods, Export Processing Zone, Export-Oriented Units and refund of duty under drawback. The Government collected customs duty worth Rs 1, 35,813 crore in the last financial year, the report said.

Some exporters and importers who had availed themselves of the benefits of duty exemption schemes did not fulfil the prescribed obligations for availing such sops. An amount of Rs 72.74 crore was due from exporters and importers in this regard, the audit report said.

The amount of customs duty yet to be realised is Rs 9,852.29 crore, the report said. Though the duty was assessed in March 2011, Rs 9,852.29 crore was not realised as on December 2011.

The top auditor said in the last five reports, it had included 690 audit paragraphs involving Rs 484.92 crore. “Of these, the Government had accepted audit observations in 618 audit paragraphs involving Rs 335.05 crore and had recovered Rs 79.59 crore,” the report added.

FAULTY ASSESSMENT

The CAG also detected incorrect assessment of customs duty totalling Rs 28.25 crore. “These arose mainly due to non realisation of cost recovery charges, excess refund of additional duty of customs, non levy of anti dumping duty and incorrect assessment of high sea sale etc,” the report said.

It observed a few instances where the Development Commissioners did not initiate any action on certain EoUs that were not realising the export proceeds as per the quarterly or annual performance reports within the period prescribed.

The auditor recommended that the department may introduce a specific provision for levy of anti- dumping duty for clearances by SEZ units as in the case of EoUs.