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Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs)
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Circular No. 12/2021-Customs
Room No.227B, North Block,
New Delhi, dated the 30th June, 2021
To,
All Principal Chief Commissioners/ Chief
Commissioners of Customs/ Customs (Preventive)
All Principal Chief
Commissioners/ Chief Commissioners of Customs & Central tax,
All Principal
Commissioners/ Commissioners of Customs/ Customs (Preventive),
All Principal
Commissioners/ Commissioners of Customs & Central tax,
All Principal Director
Generals/ Director Generals under CBIC.
Madam/Sir,
Subject: Implementation
of the Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations.
Kind reference is
invited to the Circular No. 43/2020- Customs dated 30th September 2020 on the
implementation of Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations.
2. Sea
Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations (SCMTR), 2018, were notified vide
Notification No.38/2018-Customs (N.T.) dated 11.05.2018. The SCMTR seek to bring
about transparency, predictability of movement, advance collection of
information for expeditious clearance and supersedes the earlier regulations
viz. Import Manifest (Vessels) Regulations, 1971 and Export Manifest
(Vessels) Regulation, 1976. The Regulations stipulate for advance notice by
authorized carriers for goods arriving in or being exported out of India through
gateway seaports and further movement between Customs stations. They stipulate
the obligations, roles and responsibilities for the various stakeholders
involved in movement of imported/export goods. Based on the feedbacks from
the various stakeholders, the changes were incorporated and the said
regulations was made effective from 1st of August, 2019 with transitional
provisions under Regulation 15 till the 30th of September, 2020.
3.
Considering the disruptions caused due to Covid-19 Pandemic and non-readiness of
the stakeholders, Board has issued several notifications time to time and the
last one being Notification No. 50/2021-Customs (N.T.) dated 31.05.2021, vide
which the transitional provisions under Regulation 15(2) have been extended
till 30th June 2021 to enable submission of manifests under erstwhile
regulations.
4. During this period, to handhold the trade, Directorate
General of Systems has taken numerous outreach activities for both trade and
officers. Advisories (on steps for registration, new pan – India Bonds,
Dissemination of Entity Type information, message testing and filing, reports
and enquiries) and communications from time to time have been issued to the
field officers for engaging the stakeholders in handholding exercises and
keeping the trade abreast with the latest developments with regards to the
implementation of SCMTR and for smooth transition to the SCMTR regime.
Directorate General of Systems has also issued various guidelines/advisory
related to the registration process and filing requirements under the Sea
Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations (SCMTR) for different stakeholders
such as Shipping Lines, Freight Forwarders, Transhippers etc, who are
integral to the implementation of the said regulations. The guidelines can be
found at the following link
(https://www.icegate.gov.in/SeaManifestRegulation.html). Directorate General of
Systems has organized several webinar sessions with authorised
carriers/agents, custodians, freight forwarders, console agents and other
notified carriers. These outreach sessions were aimed at sensitizing them
towards message filing requirement under SCMTR as per guidance and the
formats available in ICEGATE.
5. Board has reviewed the progress of the
adoption of the new formats/procedures by the stakeholders. While it is
noticed that the registration of the entities and submission of National
Bonds is almost complete, very few entities keep filing the declarations as
stipulated in the SCMTR. The Adoption of new message formats by the
stakeholders is approx. 22% in case of Sea Carriers, while it is 31% for the
transhippers. It is also seen that, the filing in Export related messages is
exceptionally low, compared to the import related messages. In this stage it
may be appreciated that complete and error free details of containers and its
movement during Stuffing and the transshipment will greatly facilitate filing
of Export messages. On analysis, it is seen that 44% of custodian has adopted
new messages and only 36% of Stuffing Report is being filed by custodian in
new format. As the same is not being filed in the new format, this leading to
difficulty in further integration.
6. To re-iterate, as elaborated in various
outreach activities by the DG Systems, it has already operationalized to
procedure to enable online filing of the electronic declaration at certain
events by the custodians. This will enable reconciling the declarations filed by
various carriers thus error-free. The above category known as ACU/ATOs and
includes custodians of Container Freight Stations (CFS), Inland Container
Depots (ICD) and seaports. These ACUs/ATOs are required to file the stuffing
reports (SF) and stripping reports (ST). Stuffing and stripping reports are
required to be filed electronically by the Custodians including Terminal
Operators wherever the cargo is being segregated or stuffed in different
containers. Stuffing (SF) and Stripping (ST) messages will be filed for every
equipment (container) giving the PCINs (Primary Cargo Identification
Numbers)/MCINs (Master Cargo Identification Numbers) being stuffed into or
stripped out of that container. Additionally, Custodians will also have to
file notifications of actual time of arrival and departure of conveyance
(ATE/ELR for Terminal Operators and AT/DT for other Custodians). The same has
enabled on voluntary basis since March 2021 for migrating to the new
procedure.
6.2. Further, to speed up the direct delivery process, The ATOs
are required to electronically file the following details with Customs,
namely
i. Voyage Call Number (VCN), which is required to be the port on
confirmation of voyage by the vessel in such port.
ii. Actual Time of
Arrival (ATE), which is required to be filed immediately on arrival at the
current port of call.
iii. Equipment Landed on Arrival (ELR), which is also
required to be filed on details of the containers offloaded from the vessel.
iv. Equipment Loaded at Departure (ELR), which is required to be filed on
details of the containers loaded on to the vessel.
v. Actual Time of
Departure (ATE), which is required to be filed immediately after departure
from the Indian port of call.
7. Since sufficient time has been provided for
adoption on voluntary basis, Board has decided that following messages by the
Custodian i.e., Stuffing Message (SF), ASR Filing, DP Filing and AR filing by
the Custodians and VCN message by the Terminal Operators will be made
mandatory w.e.f. 20th July 2021. The detailed guidelines and FAQs for different
categories of stakeholders are available on ICEGATE
(https://www.icegate.gov.in/SeaManifestRegulation.html) and may be kindly
referred to.
8. Further, Board vide Customs Notification No. 56/2021 -Customs
(N.T) dated 30.06.2021 has extended the transitional provisions of SCMTR till
31st July 2021 for to enable carriers continue mandatory filing on parallel
basis.
9. The Principal Chief/Chief Commissioners of Customs are requested to
issue Public Notices and guide the trade suitably to ensure smooth
implementation of the Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations.
10.
Any difficulties faced in the implementation of this Circular may please be
brought to the notice of Board.
Yours faithfully,
F. No.450/58/2015-Cus IV(Pt)
(Manish Kumar Choudhary)
OSD (Customs-IV)
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