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HBIMS-NAF&SA™

National Portal for Maritime Aspirants

Policy Document

Refund & Cancellation

When the ₹100 Application & Aptitude Screening fee is refundable, when it is not, and exactly how to raise a request.

Effective 1 October 2026Last updated 18 September 2026Humble Bee Education Foundation

01The nature of the fee

The Fee is ₹100, one time, inclusive of all taxes. It pays for work that is performed as soon as your screening is activated: processing your application, creating a verified candidate record, generating and evaluating an Aptitude Screening, allotting a screening slot and issuing a numbered receipt.

The Fee is not a deposit, is not held on account, and is not adjusted against any course fee charged by a Maritime Training Institute.

02Non-refundable once the screening is activated

The main rule

Once the Aptitude Screening has been activated against your NAF ID, the Fee is non-refundable. At that point the work it pays for has been done, whether or not you go on to attempt the screening.

Activation happens when your payment is confirmed and the screening is attached to your NAF ID. Your receipt email records the date and time.

The exceptions below apply regardless of activation.

03Duplicate or double charges — refunded in full

If you were charged more than once for the same application — a duplicate submission, a double click, or a gateway retry that charged twice — every charge beyond the first is refunded in full.

You do not need to argue for this. Write to support@maritimeaspirant.com with your NAF ID and the order IDs, or simply the bank statement lines, and we will trace it at the gateway and reverse the extra amount.

04Failed transactions that show as debited

Where a payment fails but an amount shows as debited from your account, that debit is auto-reversed by your issuing bank. No refund request is needed from us, because the amount never settled to us.

Auto-reversal normally completes within [AUTO-REVERSAL WINDOW: TO BE CONFIRMED]. If the amount has not returned after that, write to us with your NAF ID, order ID and the bank statement line, and we will raise it with the gateway on your behalf.

05Technical failure attributable to us — refunded in full

If the Fee was taken but no screening was activated, or the screening could not be delivered because of a failure on our side, the Fee is refunded in full. Examples: payment confirmed but no NAF ID issued; screening never attached to your record; screening unavailable for the whole of your allotted cycle due to a fault of ours.

Where the fault is ours we will normally offer to activate the screening instead, and will refund if you prefer that.

06Cancellation before activation

If you decide not to proceed and the screening has not yet been activated, write to support@maritimeaspirant.com and the Fee is refunded in full.

An application created but never paid for needs no cancellation. It simply remains unpaid, costs you nothing, and moves to a cold record after 240 hours.

07Where a refund is not due

  • You changed your mind after the screening was activated;
  • You did not attempt the screening within your allotted cycle, having had the opportunity;
  • You are found ineligible at a later stage, including on medical grounds — the Fee pays for the screening, not for an outcome;
  • Your application was voided for false information, impersonation or a proxy attempt;
  • You withdrew communications consent or asked for deletion after activation;
  • You are dissatisfied with your screening result. The screening is a readiness check and records what it finds.

08How to raise a refund request

Write to support@maritimeaspirant.com from the email address on your record, with the subject line Refund request — [your NAF ID], including:

  1. Your NAF ID;
  2. The order ID;
  3. The receipt number in the format NAF/MA/MM/YY/NNNNNN;
  4. The payment reference or transaction ID from your bank or UPI app;
  5. A one-line reason, and a screenshot of the bank statement line if the issue is a debit.

Please do not open multiple threads for the same issue — it slows the trace rather than speeding it.

09Timelines

We acknowledge a refund request within [ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WINDOW: TO BE CONFIRMED] of receipt.

We decide and communicate the outcome within [DECISION WINDOW: TO BE CONFIRMED].

Where a refund is approved, it is initiated within [INITIATION WINDOW: TO BE CONFIRMED] and typically reaches your account within [BANK CREDIT WINDOW: TO BE CONFIRMED], depending on your bank.

Every day-count above is deliberately left blank. We would rather publish no timeline than publish one we have not confirmed we can meet.

10How refunds are paid

Refunds are always made to the original payment instrument — the same card, UPI handle or bank account the payment came from. We cannot redirect a refund to a different account, and we will never ask for your bank details in order to process one.

If anyone asks for your card number, UPI PIN, OTP or net-banking password in connection with a refund, it is a fraud attempt. We will never ask for any of those.

11Escalation

If you are not satisfied with the outcome, reply on the same thread asking for escalation, or write to the Grievance Officer named in the Privacy Policy. Include the original request and our response.

Escalated matters are reviewed within [ESCALATION REVIEW WINDOW: TO BE CONFIRMED].