Circular 21/2018-Customs
F. No: 450/119/2017-CusIV
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs)
*****
Room No. 227B, North Block,
New Delhi dated 18
th
July, 2018
To,
All Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Customs/ Customs&
Central Tax / Customs (Preventive)
All Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs/ Customs& Central Tax /
Customs (Preventive)
All Director Generals under CBIC.

Subject: Refund of IGST on export of Goods on payment of duty-Setting up of
Help Desks -reg.
Sir/ Madam,
Various representations have been received in the Board wherein micro, small and
medium enterprise exporters have informed that their IGST refunds are held up and that
they are unable to approach Customs port of exports due to factors like distance, lack of
information/knowledge etc. As part of the ongoing Refund Fortnight, it has been decided
to set up Help Desks at the offices of FIEO and AEPC for expeditious resolution of IGST
refund related issues.
2. The Help Desks would be located at the locations mentioned in Annexure A, and
would function for a period of 2 weeks till 1
st
August, 2018. They will be manned by
officers of Customs, who shall be nominated by the jurisdictional Customs zone. The
necessary infrastructure like Computer, Scanner/Printer, Internet, Cabin Space etc. would
be made available to the officers by FIEO/AEPC.
3. The Directorate of Systems shall provide the status of each pending IGST refund
claim with specific error due to which it is being held up, on Antarang. The icegate email
ID of the officer(s) deputed at the Help Desk may immediately be informed to
Team.ICES@icegate.gov.in to enable access to the data. The officers deputed at Help
Desks would use this data to inform the exporters about the documents required, if any,
and guide them to resolve the errors. The exporters can provide details related to any port
of export at the Help Desk near their location. The Help Desk shall act as an extended
office of the Port of export and collect documents/ information on behalf of the port of
export. The details provided by the exporters to the Help Desk shall be transmitted by

ICEGATE e-mail to the nodal officers at the port of export. The ICEGATE e-mail ID of
the nodal officer of each port of export shall immediately be informed to
Team.ICES@icegate.gov.in. The Customs officers at the port of export shall process the
refund claim after all the necessary details/documents submitted at the Help Desks have
been forwarded to the nodal officer at the port of export. There shall be no need for the
exporters to visit any port of export once all the requisite documents/information have
been submitted at the Help Desks.
4. Field formations may, therefore, take necessary steps to bring these changes to the
knowledge of exporters.
5. Difficulties, if any, may be brought to the notice of the Board.
6. Hindi version follows.
Yours faithfully

(Zubair Riaz)
Director(Customs)

Annexure A

1. FIEO offices in the following locations

(i) Ahmedabad
(ii) Bangalore
(iii) Chennai
(iv) Cochin
(v) Coimbatore
(vi) Delhi
(vii) Hyderabad
(viii) Kolkata
(ix) Ludhiana
(x) Mumbai

2. AEPC office, Tirupur.
circulars no 21 2018 | iKargos