The Indian government has enhanced 'ease of dong business' for importers and
exporters by eliminating the need for physical copies for customs clearance to a
large extent. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) will implement it
from December 1 to help importers and exporters move towards electronic
messaging and a paper–free environment.
In a circular, CBEC announced that importers and exporters, belonging to various
fields including textiles, will henceforth not be required to submit printouts
for a number of documents. These include GAR 7 forms/TR 6 Challans,
Trans-shipment Permit (TP), shipping bill (exchange control copy and export
promotion copy) and bill of entry (exchange control copy) to banks, Directorate
General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and customs ports among others.=
As 95 per cent of the importers are now paying duty through e-payment and
these documents can be viewed on the IceGate e-payment gateway, there is no need
to print GAR 7 Forms/TR6 Challans. As for TP information, it is sent
electronically to the carrier, the transporter undertaking the transshipment,
the custodian of the gateway port and the Indian Customs EDI System (ICES) at
the destination inland container depot (ICD) or port. Thus, the requirement for
submission of manual printouts of TP copy has been done away with.
ICES generates documents such as the shipping bill and the bill of entry
electronically. CBEC provides copies of the digitally signed shipping bill to
DGFT and the data of shipping bill is also integrated with the Export Data
Processing and Monitoring System (EDPMS) of RBI. Therefore, printing of the
exchange control copy and export promotion copy of the shipping bill for manual
submission by the exporter is not required.
Similarly, with the operationalisation of the Import Data Processing and
Monitoring System (IDPMS), banks are not required to obtain a physical copy of
bill of entry from the importer as an evidence of import because data can be
transferred in a secured manner from the system of customs department to IDPMS.
Therefore, it has been decided to discontinue the printing of exchange control
copy of bill of entry.
All customs houses at ports, air cargo complex, ICDs and CFCs have been asked
to issue public notice regarding the new decision. (KD)
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