Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Excise and Customs
Circular No. 23/2013-Customs
New Delhi, Dated 24th June, 2013
To
All Chief Commissioners of Customs /Customs (Prev)
All Chief Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise
All Commissioners of Customs /Customs (Prev)
All Commissioners of Customs and Central Excise
All Director Generals under CBEC
Sir/Madam
Sub: Introduction of Risk Management Systems
(RMS) in Exports–regarding.
Attention is invited to the Board
Circular No.43/2005-Cus dated 24.11.2005
whereby Risk Management System (RMS) was introduced in Imports as a trade
facilitation measure and for selective interdiction of high risk consignments
for Customs control.
2. Implementation of RMS in Imports has been one of the most significant
steps in the ongoing Business Process Re-engineering initiative of the
department. In continuation of this initiative, the Board has now decided to
introduce RMS in exports in Customs locations where the Indian Customs EDI
Systems (ICES) is operational. The RMS in exports will enable low risk
consignments to be cleared based on self assessment of the declarations by
exporters. This will enable the department to enhance the level of facilitation
and speed up the process of cargo clearance. By expediting the clearance of
compliant export cargo, the RMS for exports will contribute to reduction in
dwell time, thereby achieving the desired objective of reducing the transaction
cost in order to make the business internationally competitive. The RMS in
Exports is scheduled for implementation from 15.07.2013 onwards.
3. The RMS for exports is developed with the following components (i)
ensuring appropriate control measures for proper and speedy disbursement of
drawback and other export incentives (ii) effective utilization of human
resources, to match the workload with the resources available (iii) ensuring
proper and expeditious implementation of existing control over export under the
applicable Allied Acts and Rules.
4. With the introduction of the RMS in exports, the present practice of
routine verification of self-assessment and examination of Shipping Bills will
be discontinued and the focus will be on quality assessment, examination and
post clearance audit (PCA) of Shipping Bills selected by the Risk Management
System.
5. Shipping Bills filed electronically into ICES through the Service Centre
or the ICEGATE will be processed by RMS. The RMS will process the data through a
series of steps/corridors and produce an electronic output for the ICES. This
output from RMS will determine the flow of the Shipping Bill in ICES i.e.
whether the Shipping Bill will be taken up for Customs control (verification of
self-assessment or examination or both) or to be given “Let Export Order”
directly after payment of Export duty (if any) without any verification of
self-assessment or examination. The RMS will also provide instructions for
Appraising Officer/Superintendent, Examining Officer/Inspect or or the Let
Export Order (LEO) Officer, wherever necessary. The decisions communicated by
the RMS on the need for verification of self-assessment and/or examination and
the appraising and examination instructions communicated by the RMS have be
followed by the field formations. It is possible that in a few cases, the field
formations might decide to apply a particular treatment to the Shipping Bill
which is at variance with the instructions received for the RMS owing to risks
which are not factored in the RMS. Such a course of action shall however be
taken only with the prior approval of the jurisdictional Commissioner of Customs
or an officer authorised by him for this purpose, who shall not be below the
rank of Addl./Joint Commissioner of Customs, and after recording the reason for
the same. A brief remark on the reasons and particulars of Commissioner’s
authorization should be made by the officer examining the goods in the
departmental comments in the EDI system.
6. Board has decided to implement RMS in export in two phases. In the first
phase the RMS will process the data and provide the output to ICES only up to
goods examination stage. In the second phase, the RMS will also process the
Shipping Bill data after the Export general Manifest (EGM) is filed
electronically and provide output to ICES for selection of shipping Bills for
Drawback scrutiny and Post Clearance Audit (PCA).
7. With the implementation of export RMS, a Post Clearance Audit (PCA)
function will be introduced in respect of export s after the LEO is given for
export consignment. The objective of PCA is to monitor, maintain and enhance
compliance levels, while reducing the dwell time of cargo. The RMS will select
the Shipping Bills for audit, after issue of LEO, and these selected Shipping
Bills will be directed to the audit officers for scrutiny by the ICES. It may be
noted that the auditors are specifically being instructed to scrutinize
declarations with reference to exports incentives, duty drawback and other
compliance requirements Wherever necessary, RMS will provide instructions for
audit Officers. In case any possible short levies or undue claim of export
incentives are noticed, the officer will issue a Consultative Letter setting out
the ground for their views to the exporters/CHAs. Audit Officers should also
scrutinize declarations with reference to data quality and advise the exporters/
CHAs suitably where the quality of their declarations is found deficient. Such
advise is expected to be followed and will be monitored by the Local Risk
Managers (LRM).
8. As in the case of Import, the national management of the Risk Management
systems shall be the responsibility of the Risk Management Division. There will
be a single Local Risk Manager (Admin) for a location for both import and
export.
9. The implementation of RMS for exports will necessitate reorganization for
staff. Board desires the Chief Commissioner of Customs to undertake a
comprehensive re-organization of the officers deployed for processing of
Shipping Bills. The present appraising facilities should be right-sized in tune
with the quantum of Shipping Bills coming for assessment. A separate PCA section
needs to be created and sufficient staff should be diverted to the Post
Clearance Audit. The strength of the staff for examination of cargo would also
be required to be readjusted.
10. With the introduction of RMS in exports, the selection of Shipping Bills
for verification of Self-assessment and/or examination will be based on the
output given by RMS to ICES. Accordingly the examination and assessment norms
contained in the Board’s
Circulars No. 06/2002–Cus dated 23.01.2002, 01/2009-Cus
dated 13.01.2009 and 28/2012-Customs dated 16.11.2012 would stand modified to
that extent. However, owing to some technical reasons if the RMS fails to
provide output to ICES or RMS output is not received at ICES end in time, the
existing norms of assessment and examination prescribed by the aforementioned
circulars will be applicable.
11. To begain with, RMS in Exports will be introduced w.e.f. 15.7.2013 at ICD
Mulund and ICD Patparganj. With the implementation of RMS in exports the
existing facilitation scheme viz. Accelerated Clearance System vide Circular
No.30/2003-Cus dated 4.4.2003. would be phased out. As the deployment of the
export RMS is likely to take place in a phased manner across the ICES locations,
the existing facilitation scheme will continue to be operative in each Customs
station until the operationalisation of the export RMS at the station.
12. Board desires DG (Systems) to forward the detailed instruction/draft
public notice to field formation separately.
13. Any difficulty in implementation of these instructions should be brought
notice of the Board immediately.
Yours faithfully,
( R.P. Singh )
Director (Customs)
F.No.450/28/2011-Cus.IV