Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Excise & Customs
Circular No.35/2016-Customs
North Block, New Delhi
Dated, the 29th July 2016
All Principal Chief Commissioners Customs,
All Principal Chief Commissioners of Customs & Central Excise,
All Chief Commissioners of Customs,
All Chief Commissioners of Customs & Central Excise,
All Directors General, Chief Departmental Representative, All Principal
Commissioners of Customs,
All Principal Commissioners of Customs & Central Excise,
All Commissioners of Customs,
All Commissioners of Customs & Central Excise.
Subject: Removal of mandatory warehousing requirements for EOUs, STPIs, EHTPs
etc. - Amendment to Notification 52/2003- Customs dated 31.03.2003.
Sir/Madam,
Chapter 6 of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) provides for manufacture of goods
and supply of services, including repair, re-making, reconditioning,
re-engineering by Export Oriented Units (EOUs), Electronics Hardware Technology
Park Units (EHTPs), Software Technology Park Units (STPIs) and Bio-Technology
Park Units (hereinafter referred to as “units”) and undertaking to export their
entire production of goods and services, except permissible sales in DTA.
2.
Notification 52/2003-Customs dated 31.03.2003, as amended from time to time,
exempts specified goods when imported for use in the units, from payment of
Customs duties, subject to various conditions stated therein. The notification
provides for warehousing of imported goods, to be used for manufacture of goods
or other operations as well as their ex-bonding under certain circumstances. The
Units, therefore, obtain a license as a warehouse under Section 58 of the
Customs Act, 1962 and permission under Section 65 of the Act, as a
manufacture-in-bond facility.
3. In line with the Government’s objective of ‘ease of doing business’, the need
for applying the warehousing provisions under Chapter IX of the Customs Act,
1962 to the above units, has been examined.
3.1 Warehouses are facilities set up to avail the benefit of customs duty
deferment. Imported goods can be stored in a warehouse without payment of duty,
and the applicable duty is required to be paid only at the stage of their
clearance from the warehouse. In case of the above-referred units, the need for
duty deferment is obviated as the goods procured by them are exempt from duties
of customs, under
Notification 52/2003-Customs, subject to certain conditions,
such as, the manner of usage of the procured inputs and capital goods; their end
use including the removal of the said goods; and the requirement to maintain
proper accounts of receipt, storage and utilisation of imported goods.
3.2 In this backdrop, it was felt that the application of warehousing provisions
to these units adds to their compliance requirements without adding to either
improved monitoring by the dept. or providing any additional facilitation to
them.
4. Recognizing the potential role of these units in the Make in India initiative
and as a measure of improving the ease of doing business, it has been decided to
do away with the need to comply with warehousing provisions by these units. For
this purpose, notification 44/2016 – Customs dated 29th July 2016 has been
issued (effective from 13th August 2016) amending the principal
notification
52/2003-Customs dated 31st March 2003. As a consequence, these units shall stand delicensed as warehouses under Customs Act, 1962, with effect from 13th August,
2016. They shall continue to adhere to the provisions of
Notification
52/2003-Customs dated 31.3.2003, FTP, HBP and other applicable notifications.
5. In view of the condition of warehousing having been dispensed with respect to
the units, the warehoused goods register (warehousing bond register) shall not
be required to be maintained w.e.f 13th August 2016. However, in order to
maintain records of receipts, storage, processing and removal of goods, imported
by the units, as required under
notification 52/2003-Cus dated 31.3.2003, the
Board has prescribed that the units shall maintain records of imported goods, in
digital form, based upon data elements contained in Form A (appended). The
software for maintenance of digital records must incorporate the feature of
audit trail which means a secure, computer generated, time-stamped electronic
record that allows for reconstruction of the course of events relating to the
creation, modification, or deletion of an electronic record and includes actions
at the record or system level, such as, attempts to access the system or delete
or modify a record. While the data elements contained in the Form A are
mandatory, the unit will be free to add or continue with any additional data
fields, as per their commercial requirements. All units are required to enter
data accurately and immediately upon the goods being received in or removed from
the unit. The digital records should be kept updated, accurate, complete and
available at the unit at all times for verification by the proper officer,
whenever required. A digital copy of Form A, containing transactions for the
month, shall be provided to the proper officer, each month (by the 10th of
month) in a CD or Pen drive, as convenient to the unit.
5.1. The above requirement of maintaining digital records, in the prescribed
Form, is applicable from 13th August 2016. Record of imported goods received on
or after 13th August 2016 shall be maintained as per the prescribed Form. The
information regarding the stock of goods lying with the unit need to be
integrated into the digital record prescribed under this circular. However, data
relating to goods already processed and/or cleared need not be updated in the
digital records. The warehoused goods register maintained hitherto shall suffice
for the purpose.
6. In view of the warehousing procedures having been dispensed with for these
units, the system of sending re-warehousing certificates to the customs station
of import shall also stand dispensed w.e.f 13th August 2016.
7. In place of the re-warehousing certificate procedure, the following is
prescribed:
(i) The Units shall continue to obtain / furnish a Procurement Certificate at
the Customs Station at the time of import or pre-authenticated procurement
certificates, as applicable to them;
(ii) Upon receipt of goods in the unit, a copy of the relevant bill of entry
shall be provided to the jurisdictional office;
(iii) The jurisdictional office shall reconcile the imports with procurement
certificates.
7.1. Inter-unit transfer of capital goods and manufactured goods has been
provided in para 6.13 of FTP 2015-20 and involves prior intimation.
Additionally, at present, a procedure of bond to bond movement is being
followed, whenever capital goods, manufactured goods or inputs are supplied by
one unit to another. In place of bond to bond movement, the following procedure
shall be followed:
(i) Any procurement by one unit from another should be supported by a
procurement certificate or pre-authenticated procurement certificates, as
applicable;
(ii) The supply of the goods from one unit to another shall be based upon the
usual commercial documents, such as, invoice & delivery challan;
(iii) Upon receipt of goods, copies of documents shall be provided to the
jurisdictional office of the sending and receiving unit by way of intimation;
8. Any difficulty faced in the implementation of this circular may be brought to
the notice of the Board.
9. Hindi version follows.
Yours faithfully,
Encl: Form A
(S.Kumar) Commissioner (Cus & EP)
F. No. 484/3/2015-LC (Pt II)
FORM -A
Form to be maintained by EOU/STPI/EHTP for the receipt, storage, processing and
removal of goods.
(as per Circular 35/2016-Customs dated 29thJuly2016)
Name of EOU and address:
Central Excise/Service Tax Registration No:
Range_______ / Division_______ Commissionerate____________
Receipts |
Bill of Entry
No. and date, if applicable |
Customs
Station of import, if applicable |
Code and address of
Warehouse from where received (only in cases goods are
procured from public or private warehouse) |
Name &
Address of EoU from where goods are
received, if applicable |
Others
(in case of any other source of procurement) |
Details of
B-17 Bond
/ Amount debited |
Description of goods |
Invoice No. |
Procurement
Certificate No. and date |
Unit,
Weight and quantity |
Value |
Duty assessed |
Registration
No. of means of transport |
Date and
time of receipt |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
Removal for processing |
Remarks
(The goods removed for processing shall be accounted in a manner
that enables the verification of input-output norms, extent of waste, scrap generated etc) |
Date and time of removal |
Quantity cleared |
Value |
Duty involved |
|
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
Other removals |
Returns to unit |
Balance in stock |
Remarks
|
Purpose of removal |
Date and time |
Quantity |
Value |
Duty |
Details of document under which removed (No. and date) |
Purpose of return |
Date and time |
Quantity |
Value |
Duty involved |
Details of document under which returned (No. and date) |
Quantity |
Value
|
|
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27
|
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
32 |
33 |
34 |
|