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Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Excise and Customs)
Circular No. 36/2017-Customs
Room No.227-B, North Block,
New Delhi, 28th August, 2017
To,
All Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Customs &
Central Excise
All Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs & Central
Excise
All Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Customs/Customs
(Preventive) All
Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs / Customs
(Preventive)
Subject: Implementing Electronic Sealing for Containers by exporters under
self-sealing procedure prescribed vide circular 26/2017-Customs dated I" July
2017-reg.
In continuation of the Board circular 26/2017 -Customs dated 1st July, 2017
regarding self-sealing of containers by exporters using electronic seals, the
Board has approved the following procedure which shall be adhered to by
exporters opting for self-sealing.
2. Procedure
(a) The exporters who were availing sealing at their factory premises under
the system of supervised factory stuffing, will be automatically entitled for
self-sealing procedure. All exporter AEOs will also be eligible for
self-sealing. It is clarified that all those exporters who are already operating
under the self-sealing procedure need not approach the jurisdiction Customs
authorities for the self-sealing permission.
(b) The permission to self-seal the export goods from a particular premise,
under the revised procedure, once granted shall be valid unless withdrawn by the
jurisdictional Principal Commissioner or Commissioner of Customs if
non-compliance to law, rules and regulations is noticed. In case the exporter
makes a request for a change in the approved premise (s), then the procedure
prescribed in circular 26/20 17-Cus shall be followed, and a fresh permission
granted before commencement of self-sealing at the new premises.
(c) With respect to para 9 (v) of the circular 26/20l7-cus, Principal
Commissioners / Commissioners would be required to communicate to Risk
Management Division (RMD) of CBEC, the IEC (Importer Exporter Code) of the
following class of exporters:
(i) exporters newly granted permission for self-sealing;
(ii) exporters who were already operating under self-sealing procedure;
(iii) exporters who were permitted factory stuffing facility; and
(iv) AEOs The categories mentioned in c(ii), (iii) and (iv) may be
communicated to RMD by 20-09-2017
(d) Under the new procedure, the exporter will be obligated to declare the
physical serial number of the e-seal at the time of filing the online integrated
shipping bill or in the case of manual shipping bill before the container is
dispatched for the designated port/ICD/LCS.
(e) Exporters shall directly procure RFID seals from vendors, conforming to
the standard specification mentioned in para 3 below. Since the procedure seeks
to enhance integrity of transportation of goods, the exporters will be required
to obtain seals directly. They shall provide details such as IEC etc., at the
time of purchase for identification as well as for using the standard web
application necessary to support an RFlD self-sealing ecosystem.
(f) In case, the RFID seals of the containers are found to be tampered with,
then mandatory examination would be carried out by the Customs authorities.
3. Standard Specification of the Seal:
(a) The electronic seal referred to in Para 9 (vii) of the Circular No.
26/2017-Customs dated 01st July, 2017 shall be an "RFID tamper proof one-time-bolt
seal", each bearing a unique serial number. The exporters shall be responsible
for procuring the seals at their own cost for use in self-sealing.
(b) Each seal shall be a one-time-bolt-seal bearing a unique serial number
and brand of the vendor in the format ABCD XXXX XXXX, where ABCD stands for the
brand of the vendor and X (8 digit) is a numerical digit from 0-9.
(c) The RFID seal shall conform to ISO 17712:2013 (H) and ISO/IEC 18000-6
Class 1 Gen 2 which is globally accepted in industrial applications and can be
read with the use of UHF (i.e. 860 MHz to 960 MHz) Reader-Scanners.
(d) The manufacturer or vendor, as the case may be, shall be in possession of
certifications requireda for conformance of the ISO standard ISO 17712:2013 (H)
namely, clauses 4, 5 and 6. Before commencement of sales, the vendor shall
submit self-certified copies of the above certifications to the Risk Management
Division (RMD) and all the ICDs/ Ports where he intends to operate along with
the unique series of the seals proposed to be offered for sale.
4. Application, Record Keeping and Data Retrieval System
(a) It is clarified that the information sought from the exporter in para 9
(vii) of the circular 26/2017- Customs shall now be read as:
IEC (Importer Exporter Code)
Shipping Bill Number
Shipping Bill Date
e-seal number
Date of sealing
Time of sealing
Destination Customs
Station for export
Container Number
Trailer- Truck Number
It is further clarified that the information need not be mounted "in the
electronic seal"but tagged to the seal using a 'web / mobile application' to be
provided by the vendor of the RFID seals. Data once uploaded by the exporter
should not be capable of being overwritten or edited.
(b) All vendors will be required to transmit information in para (a) above to
RMD and the respective destination ports / ICDs of export declared by the
exporter. The arrangements for transmission of data may be worked out in
consultation with the RMD and nodal Customs officer at each ICD / Port.
(c) All vendors shall be required to make arrangements for reading / scanning
of RFID one- timeBolt seals at the Customs ports/ rCDs at their own cost,
whether through handheld readers or fixed readers.
(d) The integrity of the RFID seal would be verified by the Customs officer
at the port /ICD by using the reader-scanners which are connected to Data
Retrieval System of the vendor.
(e) Since all K'Ds / ports where containerized cargo is handled would require
reader scanners, Principal Commissioners or Commissioners exercising
administrative control over such ports/ ICDs shall notify the details of the
nodal officers for the smooth operation ofthis system.
(f) The transaction history of the self-sealing should be visible to the
exporters for their reference.
(g) The vendor shall also undertake to integrate the information stored on
the data retrieval server with ICEGA TE at his own cost on a date and manner to
be specified by the Directorate General of Systems, New Delhi.
5. The new self-sealing procedure shall come into effect from 1st Oct, 2017.
Till then the existing procedure shall continue. All field formations are
advised to immediately notify an officer of the rank of Superintendent to act as
the nodal officer for the self-sealing procedure. He shall be responsible for
coordination of the arrangements for installation of reader-scanners, whether
fixed or hand-held.
6. Difficulties anticipated/concerns, if any, should be brought to the notice
of the Board immediately.
7. Hindi version follows.
Yours faithfully
(Zubair RlazY
Director(Customs)
[F. No:
450/08/2015-Cus.IV ]
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