HPL's plea seeking relaxation in customs duty payment rejected

06-Jul-15

The government has rejected a plea by Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) seeking relaxation in payment of customs duty for the violation of Foreign Trade Development and Regulation Act. "The policy relaxation committee (PRC) of the Commerce Ministry has rejected the plea of HPL seeking relief from payment of customs duty by the company," Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Praveer Kumar told PTI. He said that the rejection was made on the basis of a case registered by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for failing to meet export obligations under the advance licensing scheme. HPL had obtained advance license for importing naphtha at zero duty, for which the company was supposed to meet export obligation norms. But HPL had failed to meet them. Kumar said that the ministry had advised the company informally to look at the best possible ways to go about it and asked both the West Bengal government and the promoters to deliberate on the matter, adding that the company had also been asked to approach the revenue department of the Finance Ministry to get the relief.