Customs - Speedy Assessment of Inbound Postal Articles - reg. - Customs - 36/2013

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS BANGALORE CUSTOMS COMMISSIONERATE C.R. BUILDINGS, QUEEN'S ROAD, BANGALORE 560001 PUBLIC NOTICE NO. 36/2013 Dated 14.11.2013 Sub:- Customs - Speedy Assessment of Inbound Postal Articles - reg. The Postal Appraising Department of this Commissionerate is, presently, dealing with import of parcels, which are imported through the following modes of transport: (i) Sea Parcel. (ii) Air Parcel. (iii) Speed Cargo. (iv) (iv) Letter Mail. 2. Keeping in view the time sensitiveness of such parcels, the department endeavours to clear them at the earliest. Personal effects and used goods are usually eliminated for assessment and directly delivered by the Department of Posts to the consignee. Only those panels which contain goods that are liable to Customs duty are normally taken up for assessment. 3. However, many a times, complete information is not available for assessment and in such cases; it becomes necessary to call for additional information from the consignee to complete the assessment. The requirement for information is conveyed to the consignee by way of a 'Call Memo', under which details such as Technical Write-up/ Payment particulars/IEC code/ Import Invoice, etc., required for assessment of the goods are called for. The assessment of the goods is taken up on receipt of the reply to the 'Call Memo'. 4. The Call Memos are despatched by Post and are periodically followed up. However, it has been observed that in many cases the replies to the Call Memos are delayed. Therefore, in order to facilitate early communication of the requirement conveyed through the Call Memo and to facilitate an early reply as well as a measure of greater transparency and trade facilitation, the information in respect of the Call Memos issued is being made available in public domain, on the Bangalore Customs website. 5. The procedure for accessing information on Call Memos issued is detailed below. 5.1 On the Bangalore Customs website www.bangalorecustoms.gov.in a link Foreign Post Office Assessment has been created wherein a button is provided in the menu, which on clicking prompts for providing the Foreign Parcel Track (FPT) No. Once the FPT No. is entered, the details of the Call Memo, if any, issued in respect of the concerned FPT No. would be displayed. It is advised that the consignee concerned must provide requisite reply/ information within 7 days from the date of posting on the website. It is also clarified that in case of undue delay in receipt of reply (, i.e., beyond 30 days), the assessment of the goods may be completed based on the documents available with the department without any further reference to the consignee. 5.2 The details of the consignments in respect of which a Call Memo is issued alone are made available on the Bangalore Customs website. If no information is available for the Fly-r entered, it may indicate that the parcel has either been cleared by the Customs and handed over to the postal authorities for delivery OR the parcel has not been presented to Customs by the Postal authorities. In such cases, inquiry, if any, may be made with the postal authorities. 6. All concerned may make best use of this facility. (Sandeep Prakash) Commissioner