Implementation of Indian Customs EDI System 1.5 (ICES 1.5) at Customs (Import and General) New Custom House, New Delhi under CBEC’s IT Consolidation Project regarding. - Customs - 35/2010

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSONER OF CUSTOMS (I G) NEW CUSTOM HOUSE, NEW DELHI-110037 C. No. VIII/12/I G/EDI/ICES1.5/04/10 Dated: 24.11.2010 Public Notice 35/2010 Subject:- Implementation of Indian Customs EDI System 1.5 (ICES 1.5) at Customs (Import and General) New Custom House, New Delhi under CBEC s IT Consolidation Project regarding. Attention of the Importers, CHAs, Trade Partners and all other agencies concerned is invited to the computerized processing of Import documents under Indian Customs EDI System in Customs (Import and General), New Custom House, New Delhi. 1. Currently, ICES operations at Customs (Import and General) are being implemented on a standalone system on which LAN based connectivity has been provided to concerned Customs officer, Service Centre and Punjab National Bank and Custodian. The System is being managed by officials from the National Informatics Centre. 2. As part of the implementation of CBECs IT Consolidation Project, the EDI operations at Customs (Import and General), New Custom House, New Delhi will be migrated to ICES 1.5, an enhanced /modified version of the application software currently operational. This software, developed by NIC, would be implemented at CBEC s National Data Centre, Delhi. The System integrator for the project is M/s TCS. The application would cater to the needs of Customs officials at Customs (Import and General) as also the Service Centre Operator, who would be working on CBECs new Local Area Network Infrastructure implemented by M/s HP Sales India Private Ltd. Connectivity to the Central servers at the National Data Centre has been provided through CBEC s MPLS network, as part of the Wide Area Networking project. Service Centre 3. The Service Centre presently working at New Custom House, New Delhi and managed by M/s CMC will continue to be managed by M/s CMC under arrangements with Central Board of Excise Customs and there shall be no change in existing charges. However the Service Centre shall now be connected to the Central Server/ National Data Centre through ICEGATE. There shall be no floppy submission at Service Centre under ICES1.5. CHAs and Importers 4. The CHAs and Importers may file their documents either through Service Centre or through ICEGATE from their premises. Attention of the CHAs and the Importers is again drawn to the fact that there are certain modification in the Fields/ Format of the Bill of Entry to be filed under ICES 1.5 and therefore, care may be taken to file the documents in new format to avoid any inconvenience. This has already been brought to the notice of the CHAs during interactive cession with the System Team in this regards. The acknowledgement for filing Bills of Entry would reach the registered e-mail address of CHAs/Importers. The details of message exchange formats for filing Bills of Entry/Shipping Bills are available at ICEGATE website http://www.icegate.gov.in/ICES1.5.htm . The CHAs/Importers may use their own software for filing Bills of Entry in ICEGATE in prescribed message exchange formats. The free download version of RES Package is also available on ICES website at http://ices.nic.in/ICES/Home.aspx after registration. Airlines and Consol Agent 5. The Airlines/Consol Agents should file IGM/Consol Manifest only through ICEGATE. The acknowledgement for filing IGM and Consol Manifest would reach the registered e-mail address of the Airlines/Consol Agents. The message exchange formats for filing EGM are given on ICEGATE Website http://www.icegate.gov.in/ICES1.5.htm. The Airlines may prepare/use their own software for filing IGM and Consol Manifest in prescribed message exchange formats. The facility for filing of IGM and Consol Manifest through floppy at Service Centre is not available in ICES1.5. Bank 6. The Punjab National Bank branch at New Custom House would be connected to Punjab National Bank Central Server through Internet and the bank Central server through EDI messages through ICEGATE. Custodian 7. The message exchange with Custodian which was going in ICES1.0 shall continue in ICES1.5. However this shall be through ICEGATE. Changes 8. The implementation of the new application would entail certain changes in the existing Customs Systems and procedures at Air Cargo Customs (Import and General). These are being listed below for ease of reference: a) The enquiry (documents status) facility to users of Service Centre would include documents submission status (fresh and amendment) and query status. ICEGATE Document Tracking System (DTS) would also continue to be available. b) It may be noted that print out of processed Bills of Entry and Duty payment challans would continue to be obtained by users from Service Centre. c) The printout of Out of Charge copy of Bills of Entry would now be printed from the SSO-ID of the Customs Officer(s) designated for the purpose. However, the work of taking out the print from the printer other services would continue to be provided by the service Centre Operator located at the site. In case the documents are filed through ICEGATE, then specified amount is required to be paid to the Service Centre Operator towards the stationary and services. d) It may be noted that since the documents numbers are to be assigned by the Central Server at a National level, once other ICES 1.5 sites are operational, all documents numbers e.g. for Bills of Entry, Shipping Bills. EGMs, Challans, would not be in a continuous series for each location. e) The duty payment challans would now be provided to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) through electronic messaging and the bank in turn would electronically confirm payment details to ICES 1.5 System. The Designated Bank is advised that the Desk Manager handling challans should ensure that the challans accepted on 25 th Nov. 2010 by the cash officer are either accepted or rejected. There should not be any document pending in the Cash Manager s queue at the end of the day on 25 th Nov. 2010 since data from this queue will not be migrated as part of the migration of ICES operation to data centre. (f) CHAs filing Export/Import documents would be required to use their PAN based registration numbers, provided by the Policy Section of Import General Commissionerate, New Custom House, New Delhi. As per the Public Notice No. 05/2010 dated 10.03.2010 issued by the Commissioner of Customs (Import General), NCH, New Delhi, all the CHAs were requested to verify their details in the existing CHA Directory to enable creation of an updated CHA Directory at the Data Centre, New Delhi. Only those CHAs, who have verified/updated their details in CHA Directory, would be able to transact business in ICES 1.5. Hence, all the CHAs are once again requested to follow the procedure prescribed in the above-said Public Notice, before migration. Similarly all the Carrier Agencies (Airlines, Console Agents, and Freight Forwarders etc.) need to get themselves registered in Central Directory at National Data Centre as per said public notice. Any agency that fails to get itself registered at Central Directory will not be able to function in ICES 1.5. g) The Airlines/Consol Agents should note that all IGM/Consol IGMs which have been filed through Service Centre and has not been submitted to the ICES 1.0 shall not be accepted as filed on system after migration as the same shall be required to be filed again through ICEGATE. h) For Service Centre operation it may be noted that all documents entered in the Service Centre and pending for submission must be submitted prior to 25.11.2010 failing which these would have to be reentered after migration of the ICES operations to data centre. For instance if for a BE a job has been entered and not submitted prior to 25.11.2010 it would have to be entered after migration of operation to the data centre. i) The specification for EDI messages for Bill of Entry and Shipping Bills for users filing documents through internet are available on the ICEGATE website: http://wwww.icegate.gov.in/ICES1.5htm. j) Submission of documents on Service Centre or through ICGEGATE shall be stopped at 6.00 PM on 25 th Nov. 2010. Therefore, the jobs may be submitted by 4 PM. 26 TH onwards all processing shall be in manual mode till operationlization of ICES 1.5. 9. Regarding Helpdesk facilities the following may be noted: a) ICEGATE users would continue to interact with the Helpdesk at 011-23379020 and 011-23370133 or through e-mail [email protected] . This Helpdesk is managed by M/s Wipro. b) Users requiring any other clarification regarding the new application may interact with the Help Desk TCS on toll free 1800-266-2232. Users may also directly contact System Manager, Customs (Import and General) New Custom House, New Delhi or the following designated Customs officers in case of any difficulty: i) Sh. Bashistha Prasad, ADC, (System Manager) 011-25652987, (e-mail [email protected] . [email protected] ) ii) Sh. Rajendra Kumar, DC -Tel: 25653780 (e-mail: [email protected]) iii) Sh. Abhishek Chauhan, AC Tel: 25653786 (e - mail: raj.nacen.gmail.com) iv) Ravi Prakash, Appraiser Mob. 9310475108 10. SCHEDULE OF MIGRATION a) Migration activities shall start from 26 th Nov. 2010 onward. Consequently all Customs operations on the existing Customs (I G) NHC, New Delhi server would cease with effect from 2.00 PM on 26.11.2010 till the date of launch of application from Data Centre and all work would be handled manually. (b) Schedule Date Time Activites Remarks 25.11.2010 after 6 P.M. To stop Submission of documents in EDI through Service Centre ICEGATE (Job submission by 4 pm) - 26.11.2010 upto 2.00 P.M. Officers to process clear documents as far as possible in EDI pending at various stages. EDI Operation would be available for processing only and no new submission shall be permitted. 27.11.2010 onwards till Site goes live Manual submission and processing of documents. 27.11.2010 28.11.2010 Migration of data from Server at NCH to Central Server 29.11.2010 ICES 1.5 Goes live. Subject to successful migration of data. c) Punjab National Bank is advised that Desk Manager handling challans should ensure that the challans accepted on 25.11.2010 by the cash officer are either accepted or rejected. There should not be any document pending in the Cash Managers queue at end of day on 25.11.2010 since data from this queue will not be migrated as part of the migration of ICES operations data centre. d) The Custodian should note that all IGMs / EGMs details which have been filed through Service Centre should be submitted in the system failing which these details will have to be re-entered after migration to data centre. e) For Service Centre operation it may be noted that all documents entered in the Service Centre and pending for submission must be submitted prior to 6.00 PM on 25.11.2010 failing which these would have to be re-entered after migration of ICES operation to Data Centre. For instance, if for a Bill of Entry/ Shipping Bill, a job has been entered and not submitted prior to 6.00 PM on 25.11.2010, it would have to enter after migration of operation to Data Centre. 11. Difficulties, if any, faced by the trade may be brought to the notice of the Systems Manager, Customs (Import and General), New Custom House, New Delhi.- sd (V. K. Goel) Commissioner of Customs (I G) Copy forwarded to: