|
Government has introduced trade facility measures for
expeditious customs clearance of cargo and reduction
of congestion at ports. The measures which aim at streamlining
of customs procedures in the functioning of Ports &
Container Freight Stations broadly cover issues relating
to risk assessment based speedier customs clearance
of goods (RMS), accredited Clients Program for faster
delivery (ACP), reduced dwell time under RMS/ ACP, E-banking,
E-auction and simplified one time registration. These
measures are expected to help the trade and industry
in simplified filing of documents, faster assessment
and payment of duty, quicker clearance of goods at Ports
as well as in Inland Container Depots (ICDs) and would
streamline the movement of cargo.
As a result of one of the ongoing Business Process
Re-engineering project, Central Board of Excise and
Customs (CBEC), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance
had framed a Risk Management System (RMS) for speedy
clearance of cargo to reduce dwell time and congestion
at Ports/ CFS.RMS is being introduced in Mumbai Air
Cargo Complex and Mumbai Port this month and will be
introduced in other major Customs locations in the next
few months. It would provide end-to-end solutions for
issues spread across the entire compliance continuum
- ranging from speedier clearance and facilitation on
one end, to targeting and enforcement on the other.
CBEC has also introduced a new scheme of Accredited
Clients Program (ACP) in line with the internationally
accepted norm of 'Special procedures' for authorized
persons who meet criteria specified by the Customs and
have a good compliance record. Under this programme,
Customs will release most of accredited clients' consignments
without any intervention, thus drastically reducing
clearance time and transaction costs. Their imports
will be subject only to a small percentage of auomated
random checks.
The accreditation under the ACP/ RMS is a national
programme which means that the accredited clients get
the same facilitation no matter from which port, airport
or ICD they import their goods. Out of three main components
of dwell time i.e. (i) Assessment to payment of duty,
(ii) Examination of goods, and (iii) Registration of
goods for issue of out of charge from customs, no time
will be taken for assessment and for the examination
of goods under the RMS and ACP program.
The e-banking facility is being extended to importers
to enable them pay Customs duty through internet and
clear goods quickly. The importer would know online
about his duty liability and accordingly make e-payment
online. This would reduce human interface between the
Department & trade and enhance transparent functioning,
expeditious payment of Customs duty and overall reduction
of dwell time in clearance of imported goods. Modalities
for implementation of e-banking are being worked out
in consultation with banks and would be introduced shortly.
The following are the other measures introduced for
simplification of procedure to benefit the trade and
industry.
Amendment of Import General Manifest has been made
easier as routine amendments would not be taken up for
adjudication, which otherwise results in delay in clearance
of goods and increases transaction cost.
The need for submission of bank guarantee for carriage
of goods under transshipment by Shipping lines and all
other carriers of containerized cargo undertaking transshipment
of more than one thousand containers annually, has been
done away with. The waiver has been provided for transshipment
by all modes of transport.
Transhipment of international containers has been
permitted at Mundra International Container Terminal
(MICT) on the lines of practice and procedure being
followed in Nhavasheva and Mumbai for transshipment
of containers to foreign ports. This would benefit optimum
utilization of the port capacity and facilitate movement
of international transshipment cargo.
Transhipment of goods from the ports to the CFS/ICDs
has been made simple by doing away with the requirement
of separate application for transhipment of cargo.
Movement of containers loaded with LCL (Less than
full Container Load) cargo has been facilitated. This
would provide flexibility in the movement of cargo between
various CFSs and reduce the time taken in consolidation
of cargo.
EDI-based bond module is being extended for custodian
and transshipper as a measure of simplification. The
facility of electronic reconciliation of containers
is also being introduced.
Procedure is Simplified for temporary importation of
containers carrying imported cargo and its due re-export
within 6 months time.
Service providers in the port handling sector who
are appointed as Custodians by the jurisdictional Customs/Central
Excise authorities would be eligible for reduced 25%
Bank Guarantee for importing capital goods under Export
Promotion Capital Goods Scheme (EPCG) as against 100%
Bank Guarantee required at present.
Under the new simplified procedure Custodians would
now be able to dispose of long pending uncleared goods
themselves on the basis of time bound clearance from
Customs resulting in expeditious disposal of such cargo.
CBEC has introduced 'E Auction' in all Customs formations.
Such e-auctions would not only cover confiscated goods
with Customs or time-expired warehoused goods but also
uncleared /unclaimed cargo lying with the custodians.
Simplified one time registration with Custom House
for 100% EOU units importing raw materials, capital
goods and consumables, so that these units need not
validate their data time and again for imports at different
points of time at different ports is being introduced.
These measures have arisen out of ongoing efforts of
the Department of Revenue to simplify the procedure
and discussions held with various stake holders on the
procedural difficulties being faced by them for import
and export of goods. Accordingly the CBEC has issued
a set of instructions to all its field formations for
their effective implementation. Detailed information
is available on the CBEC website www.cbec.gov.in.
| 
