Board received representations from trade and industry regarding difficulties faced in cases of drawback under section 74 or refund under section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962, where import duty was paid wholly or partly through duty credit scrips. The Board noted that divergent practices were being followed by field formations — some re-credited the drawback/refund into scrips or issued re-credit certificates, while others granted the same in cash. The Circular states this issue was highlighted in Para 5.3 of C&AG’s Report No. 33/2025 on the Duty Drawback Scheme, which observed that in certain cases where Basic Customs Duty was discharged through Duty Credit Scrips, drawback under section 74 was incorrectly granted in cash.

The Board clarifies that wherever duty has been paid through scrip(s) at the time of import, and drawback under section 74 or refund under section 27 subsequently becomes admissible, the same shall be granted through re-credit and not in cash. In cases where duty at the time of import was paid through RoDTEP/RoSCTL scrips, the drawback or refund shall be granted by way of re-credit into the electronic credit ledger of the IEC holder, and the re-credited amount will be available for generation of e-scrip(s) to be utilized in the manner prescribed under Notification No. 75/2021-Customs (N.T.) dated 23.09.2021. The Circular states that the Directorate General of Systems is in the process of developing the necessary module on the Customs Automated System (CAS), and a detailed advisory will be issued upon completion of that module.

In cases involving legacy schemes such as MEIS, SEIS, etc., where import duty was paid through such legacy scrips and re-credit of the scrips is not feasible at the time of sanctioning drawback or refund, the Customs authority shall issue a re-credit certificate for revalidation of duty credit scrips from DGFT, containing details of the scrip utilised, the date of import of goods subsequently re-exported, and the amount debited at the time of import.

The Circular applies to all Chief Commissioners of Customs/Customs (Preventive), Chief Commissioners of Customs & Central Excise, Commissioners of Customs/Customs (Preventive), and Commissioners of Customs & Central Excise, and to importers/IEC holders availing drawback under section 74 or refund under section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962 where duty was paid through duty credit scrips.