Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Excise and Customs)
******
Circular No. 09/2015-Cus
New Delhi, dated the 31st March, 2015
To,
All Chief Commissioners of Customs / Customs (Preventive),
All Chief Commissioners of Customs and Central Excise,
All Commissioners of Customs / Customs (Preventive),
All Commissioners of Customs and Central Excise.
Sir /Madam,
Subject: Online message exchange between Customs and other regulatory
agencies - reg.
Hon’ble Finance Minister in the Budget, 2014 made an announcement to implement
‘Indian Customs Single Window Project’ to facilitate trade. This project
envisages that the importers and exporters would electronically lodge their
Customs clearance documents at a single point only with the Customs. The
required permission, if any, from other regulatory agencies (such as Animal
Quarantine, Plant Quarantine, Drug Controller, Textile Committee etc.) would be
obtained online without the importer/exporter having to separately approach
these agencies. This would be possible through a common, seamlessly integrated
IT systems utilized by all regulatory agencies and the importers/exporters. The
Single Window would thus provide the importers/exporters a single point
interface for Customs clearance of import and export goods thereby reducing
interface with Governmental agencies, dwell time and cost of doing business.
- In the direction of establishing the Single Window with all regulatory
agencies, the Board has decided to make a beginning by implementing an
electronic online message exchange between the Food Safety and Standards
Authority of India (FSSAI) and the Department of Plant Protection, Quarantine
and Storage (PQIS) with the Customs with effect from 01.04.2015 at JNPT (NhavaSheva),
ICD, Tughlakabad and ICD,Patparganj. Under the new online message exchange
system for import goods between these two agencies viz. FSSAI and PQIS and the
Customs, there will be seamless online exchange in real time of the Customs Bill
of Entry (Import declaration) with these agencies and Release Order (RO) from
both the agencies will be received by the Customs in electronic message format.
- The salient feature of the new online message exchange system would be as
under:
- Indian Customs EDI (ICES) would transmit “BE message” to the FSSAI and PQIS
on completion of assessment of the relevant Bills of Entry (Bs/E) by the Customs
ICES application after entry-inward of the consignment. The BE message would be
provided to FSSAI/PQIS for all Bs/E falling under the identified Custom Tariff
Heads (CTHs), as per list made available by therespective agencies.
- The Customs officers would be able to access the details of the Bs/E
referred by the ICES to FSSAI/PQIS.
- The importers would be able to track the status of the Bs/E on ICEGATE
(https://www.icegate.gov.in).
- The receipt of the Bs/E message shall be acknowledged by the FSSAI/PQIS
through a receipt message to the ICES.
- On processing of the Bs/E message by the FSSAI/PQIS, these agencies would
electronically transmit an RO, concerning each item of the Bs/E. From the
Customs side, Out of Charge (OOC) will not be allowed in the system till the RO
is received from the agency concerned for all the items. There are 6 types of
ROs which may be provided by the FSSAI/PQIS to the ICES, as follows:
(a) Release – goods can be released by the Customs.
(b) Destruction – goods to be destructed by the Customs.
(c) Deportation – goods to be exported back to the Country of Origin.
(d) No Objection Certificate (NOC)– goods can be released by the Customs.
(e) NCC (Non-compliance Certificate) – non-rectifiable defects observed in the
goods.
(f) Product Out of scope – goods are out of scope for FSSAI/PQIS.
In case, the Release Order falls under types(b), (c) and (e) above, the OOC
would not be allowed in the ICES. Details of such consignments will be entered
by the Customs Assessing Officer in the closure of B/E menu after all processes
are complete.
- On receipt of RO online, the Customs ICES shall integrate the data in the
ICES database, which shall be available to the Customs officers concerned.
- The other formalities under the Customs Act, 1962 such as duty payment,
goods registration, examination would continue during the time interval between
transmission of Bs/E message from ICES to the receipt of RO message from
FSSAI/PQIS. During this period the samples of the goods under consideration may
also be taken for testing purposes.
- As aforementioned, all Bs/E falling under the identified Custom Tariff Heads
(CTHs), as per list made available by the FSSAI, would automatically be sent by
the ICES to this agency. However, in terms of Board’s
Circular No.3/2011-Cus
dated 06.01.2011 import consignments that have been tested on previous five
consecutive occasions and found in order may not be referred to FSSAI.
Therefore, this Circular will be implemented by the Customs officers by not
waiting for the RO from FSSAI in such cases. The ICES provides a functionality
for this purpose. This measure would be in place till a system based solution is
developed. A procedure for informing FSSAI that the RO is not required in such
cases is also being examined.
- Since, the electronically received RO in regard to Bs/E referred to
FSSAI/PQIS shall be accepted by the Customs for clearance of the imported foods
items/plant materials, the Customs shall not insist that a physical copy of the
RO shall be issued by these agencies. Board also desires that the Customs should
maintain a close liaison with these two agencies to ensure that responses from
these agencies are received in time and there is no delay in clearance of goods
except in cases where sampling is required.
- It is clarified that as some of details required for other regulatory
agencies may not be currently captured in the B/E format, in such cases, the
importers would continue to furnish these additional details to the respective
agency. Further, the mode and manner of payment of fee and other charges of
other agencies will continue to be the same as per the existing practice.
- Chief Commissioners of Customs/Central Excise are requested to sensitize
staff working under their jurisdiction to ensure the smooth implementation of
the online message exchange system between the Customs and FSSAI/PQIS. It may
also be ensured that proactive action is taken to identify Bs/E for which the RO
has not been received from FSSAI/PQIS within a reasonable time so that the same
could be got expedited. The Board has separately initiated a dialogue with these
agencies to prescribe timelines for issue of ROs.
- Difficulty faced, if any, may be brought to the notice of the Board at the
earliest. Further, a suitable Public Notice may be issued for the information of
the Trade with a copy to the local offices of FSSAI and PQIS.
F.No.450/01/2011-Dir. (Cus)(Pt.I)
Yours faithfully,
(P.K. Khetan)
OSD (Cus.IV)
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