New Delhi, June 5 (IANS): Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has started to electronically disburse duty drawback amounts directly to the bank accounts of exporters in order to facilitate trade, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

''The payment of duty drawback amounts into the exporters' accounts will be facilitated through the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) automatically. This is another initiative of the CBIC towards paperless Customs and enhanced trade facilitation,'' the Finance Ministry said.

This new functionality is expected to reduce time taken for payment of drawback amount by eliminating manual intervention in the drawback disbursal mechanism and increase transparency.

Duty Drawback under section 75 of the Customs Act, 1962 rebates customs duty chargeable on any imported materials or excisable materials used in the manufacture of export goods.

Duty Drawback claims are processed through the Customs Automated System (CAS), enumerated in a scroll, Computerised Customs Drawback Advice (CCDA) is printed and sent to the Authorised Bank branch along with supporting single cheque of consolidated amount for payment of duty drawback amounts into the exporters' accounts.

This contributes to the delay in the disbursal of duty drawback.