Circular No. 49/23/2018-GST
F. No. CBEC/20/16/03/2017-GST
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs
GST Policy Wing
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New Delhi, Dated the 21st June, 2018
To,
The Principal Chief Commissioners / Chief Commissioners / Principal Commissioners /
Commissioners of Central Tax (All) / The Principal Directors General / Directors General
(All)
Madam/Sir,
Subject: Modifications to the procedure for interception of conveyances for inspection
of goods in movement, and detention, release and confiscation of such goods and
conveyances, as clarified in Circular No. 41/15/2018-GST dated 13.04.2018 –reg.
Circular No. 41/15/2018-GST dated 13.04.2018 was issued to clarify the procedure for
interception of conveyances for inspection of goods in movement, and detention, release and
confiscation of such goods and conveyances.
2.
In order to clarify certain issues regarding the specified procedure in this regard and in
order to ensure uniform implementation of the provisions of the CGST Act across all the field
formations, the Board, in exercise of the powers conferred under section 168 (1) of the
Central Goods and Services Tax Act, hereby issues the following modifications to the said
Circular:-
(i)
In para 2 (e) of the said Circular, the expression “three working days” may be
replaced by the expression “three days”;
(ii)
The statement after paragraph 3 in FORM GST MOV-05 should read as: “In
view of the above, the goods and conveyance(s) are hereby released on
(DD/MM/YYYY) at ____ AM/PM.”
3.0
Further, it is stated that as per rule 138C (2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax
Rules, 2017, where the physical verification of goods being transported on any conveyance
has been done during transit at one place within a State or Union territory or in any other
State or Union territory, no further physical verification of the said conveyance shall be
carried out again in the State or Union territory, unless a specific information relating to
evasion of tax is made available subsequently. Since the requisite FORMS are not available
on the common portal currently, any action initiated by the State tax officers is not being
intimated to the central tax officers and vice-versa, doubts have been raised as to the
procedure to be followed in such situations.
3.1
In this regard, it is clarified that the hard copies of the notices/orders issued in the
specified FORMS by a tax authority may be shown as proof of initiation of action by a tax
authority by the transporter/registered person to another tax authority as and when required.
3.2
Further, it is clarified that only such goods and/or conveyances should be
detained/confiscated in respect of which there is a violation of the provisions of the GST Acts
or the rules made thereunder.
Illustration: Where a conveyance carrying twenty-five consignments is intercepted
and the person-in-charge of such conveyance produces valid e-way bills and/or other
relevant documents in respect of twenty consignments, but is unable to produce the
same with respect to the remaining five consignments, detention/confiscation can be
made only with respect to the five consignments and the conveyance in respect of
which the violation of the Act or the rules made thereunder has been established by
the proper officer.
4.
It is requested that suitable trade notices may be issued to publicise the contents of
this Circular.
5.
Difficulties, if any, in implementation of the above instructions may be brought to the
notice of the Board at an early date. Hindi version will follow.
(Upender Gupta)
Commissioner (GST)
