Assessment of Imports against DEPB under ICES-reg. - Customs - 30/2000

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS AIR CARGO COMPLEX, SAHAR, ANDHERI (E), MUMBAI 400099 Date: 22.12.2000 PUBLIC NOTICE NO. 30/2000 Subject : Assessment of Imports against DEPB under ICES-reg. Importer, Exporters and the Custom House Agents are hereby informed that computerised processing of Bills of Entry relating to imports against DEPB under notification 034/97-CUS dated 07.04.1997 is likely to commence in the first week of Jan, 2001, the exact date will be notified separately. 2. The following categories of Bills of Entry combined with DEPB will continue to be process manually : (i) Goods subject to anti-duping/safeguard duty; (ii) Project imports (iii) EPCG Scheme (iv) DEEC (v) DFRC (vi) Any other category of B/E which is being processed manually. 3. The Procedure for clearance will be as follows : (a) Verification of DEPB The DEPB shall be verified by the DEPB Section of the Air Cargo Complex (Group VII-A) where the exports have taken place. Procedure for verification of DEPB is prescribed in the Public Notice No. 44/99 dt. 20.11.99 relating to Exports under DEPB. For this purpose original DEPB issued by DGFT shall be produced to the designated officer in the DEPB Section for verification of the Shipping Bills against which the DEPB has been issued by the DGFT. The designated officer shall verify each shipping bill in the system through the DEPB verification menu provided for. In case of manual shipping bill, the verification shall be done on the basis of copy of shipping bill received along with the EGM from the carriers. The shipping bill shall be endorsed with the DEPB No., DEPB date, DGFT file No. and Issuing Authority. After satisfactory verification of all the shipping bills, the designated officer shall make an endorsement on the reverse of the DEPB and the list of shipping bills attached with the DEPB to the effect that the verification of all the shipping bills is satisfactorily done and put his signature with date and official stamp. (b) Registration of DEPB (i) Before claiming exemption under notification 34/97-Cus dated 27.04,97 against a DEPB, the DEPB in question is required to be registered in EDI system. The officer designated to register the DEPB in the system shall ensure that verification of DEPB with reference to the exports on the basis of which DEPB is issued by DGFT has been done. NB: The Systems will not register any DEPB if the IEC details and PAN particulars of the original DEPB holder have not been registered with DGFT and have not been transmitted by DGFT to the Customs database. (ii) The designated officer shall make data entry of the DEPB details in the system through the MENU specified for License management. After entry of data a checklist will be printed by the system. The DEPB holder shall verify the details of DEPB in the checklist, if the same is correct, the DEPB holder shall sign the checklist and return the same to the designated officer. The designated officer shall then register the DEPB in the system. (iii) On registration of DEPB, system will generate a REGISTRATION NUMBER which shall be endorsed on the face of the original DEPB in bold figures with the name of AIR CARGO COMPLEX. For further activities, either for debiting against a B/E or obtaining a Release Advise, only this registration number shall be used. Without the registration, the system will not accept any claim of exemption of RA against a DEPB. The DEPB which have already been partly utilised before the introduction of on-line processing will be registered for the balance of DUTY CREDIT and FOB of exports in the manner as stated above. (iii) In case any change in the data of DEPB is required to be made after completion of registration, the same shall be made by the Asstt./Dy. Commissioner, Group VII-A. (c) TRANSFER RELEASE ADVICES (i) Issued of Release Advices If the DEPB holder, intends to utilise the DEPB at a customs station other than the port of registration, an application shall be made to the designated officer in the existing form indicating DEPB REGISTRATION NO. If the officer is satisfied on examination of the request on merits, he may grant permission for issue of TRA. The TRA NO. shall be assigned manually. Following particulars shall be entered in the system through the menu relating to transfer release advice: Release Advice No. Release Advice Date DEPB Registrartion No. Custom Station to which issued IEC of R A holder if different from DEPB holder DUTY CREDIT AMOUNT transferred Export FOB amount transferred Invoice No. MAWB/BL No./DT. HAWB/HBL No./DT. Conditions if any If the DEPB is already registered in the system and a sufficient balance in the Duty Credit amount and the Export FOB value is available, the system will print a checklist of TRA. The checklist shall be verified by the DEPB holder. If the particulars are correct the checklist will be signed by the DEPB holder and returned to the proper officer who will exercise option for issue of TRA in the system. The system shall generate three copies of the RELEASE ADVISE titled as : Customs copy for port of issue (Office copy) Customs copy for port of clearance Importers copy The office copy of Port of Issue shall be retained by the TRA issuing Customs station and placed in the respective TRA file. Customs copy for port of clearance will be dispatched to the respective Customs station and the Importers copy of TRA shall be handed over to the applicant. (ii) Receiving of Transfer Advices The TRAs received from other Customs station will be registered in the system through licensce registration menu, in the same manner as the DEPB script. On registration of TRA against a DEPB, the system will generate a T R A REGISTRATION NO. This REGN. No. should be endorsed on the Importers s copy of TRA (original) and the Customs copy received from the issuing Customs station. (iii) Re-credit of unutilised Release Advices Any unutilised credit in the Release Advice may be re-credited to the DEPB by the Asstt./Dy. Commissioner Group VII-A. (d) Claim of exemption against a DEPB/DEPB-TRA The format of declaration (Annexure) required to be made by the importer/CHA at the service centre for clearance of imported goods has been revised to incorporate a new serial number 17A along with serial number 17 as appended to this Public notice, to facilitate the declaration of claims of exemptions under DEPB and other Schemes. The declarations shall be filled by the importers in the revised formal in Annexure II. The normal exemption can be claimed as usual against an item in the B/E under S.No. 17. If exemption is also claimed against a DEPB under notification, 34/97CUS dated 7/4/1997 the entries shall be made in Annexure under serial number 17 A. For DEPB Bs/E the scheme code is B ; therefore while claiming exemption under the DEPB, B will be entered in column 9 of Sl.No. 17 A. Similarly codes will be assigned to other schemes when they are brought on to ICES. In case more than one DEPB is required to be debited against one item, the importer will be required to indicate the DEPB Regn. No. and CIF value of the goods for each DEPB to cover the entire CIF value against that item. For each item claimed for exemption under DEPB, details referred to above will be required to be indicated. The System will determine the duty amount on the basis of CIF/Quantity of goods and shall debit the duty from the DEPB credit ledger and the CIF from the FOB of Export. If sufficient balance to cover the CIF value and the Duty foregone is not available in the DEPB, the system will disallow submission of the B/E. In case , where Importer wants to clear some quantity under DEPB Scrip and balance on duty payment then he should clearly indicate in B/E, the quantity/Weight for which he want DEPB/payment of duty. For indicating the option of payment of ADDL Duty (equal to excise duty) or claiming exemption therefrom, the option shall be exercised by indicating Y or N in column 11 of Sl.No.17A. The columns number 13 (serial number of item in the license list) and 15 (quantity for license debit) are not required to be filled in for DEPB Bs/E. If the basic Custom duty and the additional Customs duty debitable to the license is zero, the DEPB exemption will not be admissable to that item. System will not allow exemption under Notfn. 34/97 for that item. For claiming the exemption from SAD, related notification and SL. No. of item in the notification should be indicated as is being done at present. Without such a claim, exemption from SAD will not be available. (e) CHECK LIST OF B/E After data entry, check list will be printed as usual and given to the importers/CHAs for verifying the correctness of data captured. For identification against the respective item, (DEPB) and Nofn. 034/97 will appear. At the end of the Checklist, a statement of debits of EXPORT FOB (=import cif) and duty sought to be debited. DEPB wise against an item Sl. No. of an invoice, will also be printed. The importers/CHAs should check the details of DEPB NO. carefully to ensure that only that DEPB would be debited which he intended to do so. If the entries are correct, the checklist may be returned to the data entry operator for submission of B/E in the system. Erros, if any, noticed may be got corrected by the entry operator. (f) SUBMISSION OF B/E On submission of the B/E in the system, an UN-ASSESSED copy of the B/E will be printed by the system containing statement of debit of DEPB for export FOB and Duty amount in respect of each item of an invoice for which exemption is claimed against DEPB. (g) ASSESSMENT OF B/E All the Bs/E where exemption against DEPB is claimed will be directed for assessment to Group VII-A. This Un-assessed copy of the B/E along with all the original import documents and all the DEPB scrips in original indicating total amount of duty credit and export FOB utilised, in the debit sheet attached to the scrips should be presented to the designated Appraiser VII-A for assessment and signatures on debit sheets of DEPB scrips. The Appraiser in Group VII-A will retrieve the B/E on screen and assess the B/E in respect of all the items and shall countersign the debits in the original DEPB. After assessment by Appraiser Group the B/E will move to the Auditor for concurrent audit and from Auditor to AC/DC group. The Auditor as well AC/DC will retrieve the B/E on screen and carry out the checks assigned to them. After the AC/DC confirms the assessment, assessed copy of the B/E will be printed along with TR 6 challan. Duty will be paid as usual. Where the Appraising officer, during the process of assessment, denies the exemption claimed under Serial No. 177 (column 5 and/or 7) of Annexure to this Public Notice; changes the tariff heading or enhances the value resulting in increase in the duty amount and value; the Appraising Officer will have the option to enter the new DEPB for CIF value corresponding to the enhanced duty/CIF against that item. (h) DEPB DEBIT LEDGER On registration of DEPB or a TRA in the system will maintain the ledger for duty credit amount and export FOB. Where the exemption from both the basic customs duty as specified in the First Schedule to CTA-75 and additional duty leviable under Section 3 of CTA-75 are claimed, the sum of basic duty, surcharge on the basic duty and additional duty amount will be debited to the duty credit in DEPB. The CIF of the related items will be debited to export FOB in the DEPB. Where exemption from additional duty is not claimed, only basic duty and surcharge on basic duty will be debited. These debits will be made by the system in the DEPB Ledger. If more than one DEPB is utilised against an item only CIF amount to be debited against each DEPB should be indicated by the importers. The duty amount will be proportionately calculated by the system for debit in the DEPB. The importers therefore should ensure that sufficient balance in the duty credit amount and export FOB is available in the DEPB to cover amounts of both components, for debit, failing which the system will not accept the declaration for B/E. In case the importer desires to utilise the DEPB for part of the quantity of an item in the invoice, he may split the quantity of that item and prepare the declarartion. (i) DEBITING OF DEPB AGAINST MANUAL B/E There are certain categories of imports for which bills of entry are processed manually. Importers may choose to avail the exemption under the DEPB Scheme for such imports and get the DEPB debited for payment of duty. In such cases manual Bs/E will be assessed as usual. After assessment the amount of duty forgone due to exemption under DEPB and the cif of goods imported being cleared against DEPB will be computed manually in respect of each DEPB scrip. The designated officer in the assessing Group will debit the original DEPB. He will also enter the amount of duty foregone and the cif of the exempted goods in the system, in the respective field of duty credit and export FOB. The debit screen can be accessed through the DEPB Regn. No.. After debiting the system will print the statement of debits of the DEPB scrip in triplicate. The copies of this print will be attached with the manual B/E, DEPB file and DEPB scrip. Importers are therefore required to register the DEPBs even when clearances are sought against manually assessed Bs/E. * (j) RES Users The RES Users in the beginning will be allowed to file the DEPB B/E through the Service Centre till appropriate software for RES is developed and provided to the RES Users. In case of any difficulty, the importer may approach Addl. Commissioner EDI in the ACC. * This facility will be available at a later date. Sd/- (A.K. CHHABRA) COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS ACC, MUMBAI.