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Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Excise and Customs)
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Circular No. 10/2015-Customs
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: Usage of Digital Signature Certificate in Remote EDI filing
(RES) of Customs Documents - reg.
The Government has prioritized trade facilitation and creating an environment
for ease of doing business. In this direction several initiatives have been
taken in the recent past to simplify Customs procedures and enhance the use of
automation in business processes with resultant reduction in transaction costs
and dwell time associated with the Customs clearance of imported and export
goods. In continuation of this approach it has now been decided to allow the
electronic submission of digitally signed Customs process documents viz. Bills
of Entry, Shipping Bills, Import General Manifest (IGM), Export General Manifest
(EGM) and Consol General Manifest (CGM).
- In this regard Board notes that the electronic submission of the
aforementioned Customs process documents is already being allowed. However, it
is imperative to ensure the integrity of the said documents. Implementation of
digital signature provides a solution. The facility of digitally signing the
documents that are filed electronically would provide the necessary assurance
regarding the integrity and non-repudiation of these documents. This shall also
enhance the acceptability of such documents by other agencies.
- Accordingly, the Board has decided that with effect from 01.04.2015
importers, exporters, customs brokers, shipping lines, airlines or their agents
shall be given the facility to use Digital Signature Certificate for filing
Customs process documents viz. Bills of Entry, Shipping Bills, IGM (General
Declaration and Cargo Declaration), EGM (General Declaration), CGM through
Remote EDI System (RES). For the present, the facility of using digital
signatures is optional for all users.
- In this context it may be noted that CBEC’s
Circular No.42/2005-Cus., dated
24.11.2005 mandates that the importers, who are recognized under the Accredited
Client Programme (ACP), shall file Bills of Entries using digital signatures.
However, this requirement has not been enforced so far. With the introduction of
the general facility of electronic filing of digitally signed Customs process
documents, the ACP importers shall be required to mandatorily file Bills of
Entry with digital signature w.e.f. 01.05.2015. They would obtain the Digital
Signature Certificate, as indicated in the following paragraph.
- To operationalize the facility to use Digital Signature Certificate for
filing the aforementioned Customs process documents, the following process would
be followed:
- A web-based Common Signer utility is provided free of cost through the
ICEGATE website (https://www.icegate.gov.in) for digitally signing the said
Customs process documents.
- Importers, exporters, customs brokers, shipping lines, airlines and their
agents are expected to use a Class III Digital Signature Certificate obtained
from any of the Certifying Authorities, as notified by Controller of Certifying
Authorities (http://www.cca.gov.in), following the due process.
- Importers, exporters, customs brokers, shipping lines, airlines and their
agents shall use the Digital Signature Certificate and the web based Common
Signer utility to digitally sign the electronic documents generated by remote
EDI package and then subsequently send the digitally signed documents for
processing via email/web upload, as is being done currently.
- On receiving the digitally signed documents the ICEGATE server side
verifier shall verify the user’s credentials, validity of certificate,
Certifying Authorities credentials, Public Key, Certificate Revocation List
(CRL) status and the result of authentication and integrate the data into ICES
database. The data so integrated will also have a flag to indicate that the
submitted document was digitally signed.
- The Customs officers will be able to identify on the system whether a
particular electronic document has been filed after signing with Digital
Signature Certificate or not.
- The Board has also decided that whenever the said Customs process documents
are digitally signed, the Customs will not insist on the user physical signing
the said documents as well. The reliance on digitally signed Customs process
documents shall also result in the reduction of hard copies of these documents.
- In case of any technical difficulty in digitally signing the said documents,
the users may contact (i) [email protected] (phone no. 1800 301
1000) and (ii) [email protected] from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on working days (phone
no. 1800 233 1010).
- The Board desires that Chief Commissioners of Customs/Customs and Central
Excise shall suitably sensitize the field formations under their jurisdiction
about the introduction of the facility of using Digital Signature Certificate
for filing Customs process documents viz. Bills of Entry, Shipping Bills, IGM
(General Declaration and Cargo Declaration), EGM (General Declaration) and CGM.
- The new facility may be given wide publicity by issue of suitable Trade
Notice/Public Notice.
F. No. 450/25/2013-Cus IV
Yours faithfully
(Pawan Khetan)
OSD (Cus –IV)
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