Indian Customs EDI System (ICES) – Exports: Automation of Allotment of Rotation Number for vessels - Customs - 19/2001

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (EP) NEW CUSTOM HOUSE, BALLARD ESTATE MUMBAI 400001 F. No. S/16-MISC-203/2001 Date : 19.02.2001 Public Notice No. 19/2001 Sub: - Indian Customs EDI System (ICES) Exports: Automation of Allotment of Rotation Number for vessels Attention of Exporters/shipping Lines/shipping Agents/CHAs and all others concerned is invited towards Public Notice No.10/2001 vide which trade was informed regarding computerized processing of shipping Bills. The Department is working towards implementation of EDI connectivity with Mumbai Port Trust. This would involve exchange of EDI messages, which would be implemented in a phased manner. As the trade is aware, shipping bills, bills of entry, IGMs and EGMs are already being handled electronically. As part of this pilot interface exercise between Customs and ports it has been decided to automate operations concerning vessels (other than coastal vessels) beginning with allocation of rotation number. At a later date, some new procedures would also be introduced for grant of entry outwards, port clearance and automation of Customs operations at the Docks/CFSs (for which a separate public notice would be issued). In addition, certain other changes are being made in ICES regarding the procedure for calculation of export cess and in the movement of shipping bill, after submission of replies to queries raised by more than one officer. Accordingly the following changes are being made in the existing procedures with effect from 23.02.2001 1. ROTATION NUMBER A. From 23.2.2001, the application for allotment of rotation number would be filed in the noting section (during office hours) with the particulars as per Annex. 1. After confirmation of the particulars as per checklist generated the rotation number and date would be generated by the system. This would be indicated on the printout available from the EDI section, IInd floor, Annex Bldg., along with all other particulars provided in the application. Two copies would be printed, of which one copy would be retained at the EDI section for handing over to the noting section. In the case the system generated rotation number is to be cancelled, the shipping agent would approach, the Noting Section and submit his application as usual, indicating reason for cancellation. After approval of the request by the Deputy Commissioner and entry of the relevant details in the system, two copies of the cancellation order would be printed in the Noting Section (proforma as per Annex2). The copies would be signed by the designatead officer, one copy retained and the secondhanded to the agent. In port would continue to be available in the system, for enabling date entry at the time of filing Annexure C/C1 (see procedure below). This would be done by designated Customs Officer, who would enter the relevant details required for allotment of Rotation Number, in respect of all vessels, whose EGMs are pending closure in the system (ie. Those vessels for which Rotation Number had already been assigned manually but EGM yet to be closed), before 23.2.2001. With effect from 23.2.2001, the Custom House Agent/shipping agent would be required to indicate the Rotation Number and date for each shipping bill as additional information at the time of filling Annexure C/C1. The designated officer will enter these details in the system, against each shipping bill, prior to grant of Let Export Order. C. Cancellation of Rotation Number and Amendments in the shipping bill after LEO If the date of entry inwards is not declared at the time of applying for the Export Rotation Number, the Export Rotation Number allotted by the system would be valid for a period of 15 days only, from the date of the Export Rotation Number. In effect the export Rotation Number earlier allotted by the system will be cancelled. Therefore the date of entry inwards must be declared to the noting section and entered in the system for the Export Rotation Number to remain valid. With effect from 23.2.2001 in case the rotation number (whether manual or system generated) is cancelled by the shipping agent (eg. In case the vessel schedule has changed), it would be the responsibility of the CHA/exporter to amend the rotation number indicated against any documents already filed in the system. It may be noted that the system would not allow printing of the EP/DEPB copies of the shipping bills indicated against the cancelled rotation number until the shipping bills are appropriately amended. In case LEO has not been give, this amendment would be made by the EO/Appr./P.O./Supdt. Before granting LEO. In case of change in rotation number after LEO, the application would be submitted to the PO, who would carry out the change on the system. The system would report this change to the AC/DC (Docks). It may be noted that no reprints of the already printed copies of the shipping bill be generated at this stage. The changes would be incorporated in the EP/DEPB copies of the shipping bill. D. Changes in particulars declared at the time of applying for system generated Rotation Number. From 23.2.2001, Shipping Agents would be allowed to change the following particulars indicated at the time of applying for rotation number. 1. Change in name of Master 2. Change in Next port of call Upto LEO these changes may be made by EO/Appr. And after LEO these may be made by PO. Two copies of the revisions would be printed and one copy retained by the noting section. II. Changes in the information required to be submitted at the time of filing a shipping bill (modification in Annexure A B). With effect from 23.2.2001, the following additional fields would be incorporated after the existing fields, in Annexure A/B, for entry at the service center: a. Nature of Cargo b. Gross weight of consignment c. Unit of weight d. Total No. of packages e. Marks and numbers Trade is therefore advised to indicate these particulars at the time of filing shipping bill. Where details for S. No. b to e are not available at the time of filing Annexure A/B , they would be required to be entered at the time of goods registration. It may also be noted that it would be mandatory to declare the code for the nature of cargo being exported, at the time of filing the shipping bill. The code (which depends on the status when goods are actually loaded onto the export vessel) is as follows: C CONTAINERISED P NON CONTAINERISED PACKAGED LB LIQUID BULK DB DRY BULK CP CONTAINERISED AND PACKAGED (NON CONTAINERISED)* (* This would be relevant for consignments comprising of both packages as well as containerized cargo) If changes are required to be made in the above particulars prior to LEO, these would be carried out by the EO/App, on the system. Changes, if required to be made after LEO, would be carried out by AC Exports as usual. III. VESSELS SELLING REPORT The format of the vessel sailing report is being simplified with effect from 23.2.2001 as per Annex 3 wherein only the vessel sailing date is required to be indicated. IV. MODIFICATION IN THE FORMAT OF THE EGM With effect from 23.2.2001, the existing format of the EGM would be modified as per Annex 4. The EGM number would be the same as the Rotation Number already assigned, either manually or by the system. It may be noted that filing of EGMs in the Customs System would thereafter not be possible without 1. The Rotation Number of the concerned vessel being available in the system. 2. Incorporating the following mandatory details in respect of each shipping bill : i. Port where shipping bill filed ii. Port of destination iii. Gateway port (which may be same as port where shipping bill has been filed) iv. Nature of cargo i.e. C Containersised LB liquid bulk DB dry bulk P Packaged non containerised CP containerized and packaged v. Total quantity and unit quantity code: For Bulk cargo vi. No. of packages : for packaged cargo vii. Container number and status (empty or loaded) : For containerized cargo The procedure for filing the EGM on floppy would also change accordingly. Details of the revised procedure may be seen at Annexure 4A. V. REGISTRATION OF PERMANENT ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND CONFIRMATION OF EXISTING PARTICULARS BY CHAS/shipping agents All CHAs and Shipping Agents are informed that both Customs and Port authorities would switch to use of a PAN based directory shortly. The agents are accordingly advised to commence registration of their PAN particulars, with the designated officer, with effect from 23.2.2001 as per format given in Annex 5. They would be required to produce either the original PAN card issued by the Income Tax authorities or a self-attested copy thereof, at the time of registration. It may be noted that in future, filing of documents at the Service Centre would only be possible on the basis of the PAN Number. On account of changes made in the structure of the existing CHA/Shipping Agents directories in ICES, all agents are advised to reconfirm their particulars (eg address, city, pincode, phone/fax/email/status of CHA licence etc., as per Annexure 6) prior to 23.2.2001. They are advised to contact DC (EDI), in this regard. It may be noted that they may not be able to file documents in the system, in case the particulars are not reconfirmed before 23.2.2001. VI DIRECTORIES OF CODES TO BE USE The following sets of codes would be used for date entry with effect from 23.2.2001 (except where indicated otherwise). A list of the relevant codes is indicated below: REMARKS (Note: Maintenance includes updates) 1. SHIPPING AGENT CHARACTER 10 The existing ICES directory is being used until the change over to PAN 2. CHA CODE CHARACTER 10 The existing ICES directory is being used until the change over to PAN directory. 3. COUNTRY CODE CHARACTER 2 Existing ICES directory to be used 4. PORT CODE CHARACTER 6 Based on UNICODE as per details given below maintained by Customs 5. UNIT QUANTITY CHARACTER 3 Existing ICES directory to be used CODE 6. ITEM TYPE CHARACTER 2 Existing ICES directory to be used 7. PACKAGE CODES CHARACTER 3 Existing ICES directory to be used 8. CURRENCY CODE CHARACTER 3 Existing ICES directory to be used 9. NATURE OF CARGO CHARACTER 2 As indicated above : EGM Format 10. REASON FOR CANCELLATION OF ROTATION NUMBER CHARACTER 3 VNA : Vessel Not Arrived OTH: other Reasons VII. IMPLEMENTATION OF UN/LOCODE All the location codes used in ICES for indicating details like the port of destination in Annexure A/B are based on 1 3 charactaer code. However in order to expand the scope of EDI implementation, it was considered essential to use an international code for this purpose. Accordingly, with effect from 23.02.2001, the existing directory of location codes in ICES (3 characters) would be changed to a new directory (6 characters) based on the UN/LOCODE. Details of all the location codes used in the Customs directory are available at www.uneee.org/ccfact/index.htm. However, the Customs directory has a different structure and incorporates certain minor changes as indicated below. Hard copies of the complete directory would be available at the service center for consultation at the time of filing the Annexures. If required, as a one-time measure of facilitation, the concerned Associations may contact DC (EDI), Mumbai Custom House for obtaining the directory on floppy. The following points may kindly be noted for implementation at the time of filing Annexures at the Service Centre/through EDI. 1. Through the directory itself is character 6 in size, for all locations outside India, the location code should be indicated using five characters only, the first two characters indicating the country code and the next three characters indicating the port code. 2. If the code for a particular international port does not exist in the UPNLOCODE directory, then a five-digit code of the nearest port in that country should be used and it should be suffixed with the letter X as the sixth character, to indicate that it is not the exact port code but an approximation. 3. The name of the actual port whose code is not available in the UN/LOCODE list would also be required to be entered at the Service Centre. 4. In case the destination is other than a port, eg an oil rig in international waters, the code XXXXXX is to be used. 5. For Indian locations all the port codes must be indicated at 6 character level. The first two characters would be the country code, the next three the port code and the last character is the function Identifier. 6. The functional identifier indicates the nature of the location ie whether it is a port, airport, ICD, land border etc. Though a city in India may have more than one functional identifier shown against it in the UN/LOCODE list/unece.org website, only one identifier should be indicated at a time (eg. INRTCI for Ratnagiri port and INRTC4 for Ratnagiri airport) Details of the functional identifiers are indicated below: 0 function not known, not yet specified 1 maritime (port) 2 rail terminal 3 road terminal 4 airport 5 Mail (postal exchange office) 6 multimodal functions ICDs etc. 7 fixed transport functions (eg. Oil platform) 8 border crossing(LCS) to repeat , for all locations outside India, the code is to be indicated only at 5character level except, when an X is required to be suffixed to indicate that the locations is not covered in the UNLOCODE and an approximate location code is being used. 7. It may also be noted that certain location codes for Land Customs Stations, coastal ports and rail locations within India, have been included in the ICES directory, though they are not yet included in the UN/LOCODE list. However, these codes have already been forwarded to the UN-ECE and are likely to be included in the UN/LOCODE list shortly (They are distinguished by the word proposed in the remarks column, within the ICES port code directory). The ICES location code directory would be updated by Customs periodically, based on the extent version of the UNLOCODE list available on the above website. Trade is advised to ensure that their code directory is also similarly updated, in the format used by the Customs directory. VIII. Changes in the procedure for calculation of Export Cess As per the current procedure, Cess is being calculated as follows: Amount of cess = FOB value x Rate of cess/100 For FOB value of ₹ 500 and a cess of 1% advalorem, this procedure would result in Cess being calculated at ₹ 5. As per representations received from certain Custom Houses and as approved by the Board, the revised procedure would calculated Cess as follows: Amount of Cess = FOB value x Rate of Cess/100 + Rate of Cess Now for FOB value of ₹ 500 and a 1% ad valorem cess, the amount of cess collected would be ₹ 4.95 only. IX. Changes in the movement of shipping bill, after submission of replies to queries raised by more than one officer. In view of the problems being faced in respect of shipping bills where multiple queries were raised by different officers and replies could not be submitted at the Service Centre, certain changes have been made pin the software. The revised system flow, in respect of all ICES shipping bills would now be as follows: A query can raised on a document either by the EO/Inspector or by the Appraiser/Superintendent. The EO/Inspector s query may be rejected or approved by the Appraiser/Superintendent. If approved, it would then be sent to AC/DC for final approval. If no query has been raised by the EO/Inspector and the Appraiser/Superintendent has directly raised a query, this too would require approval of the AC/DC. The AC/DC may raise supplementary queries on the document, i.e. in addition to the queries already raised by the EO/Inspector, the reply would be routed through the AC/DC but not through the Appraiser/Superintendent. The latter would however be able to view the reply when the document is marked back to him by the EO/Inspector. At that stage he would also be able to raise a separate query if required. It may be noted that this is different from the existing procedure where the query having been approved by the AC/DC, the reply is directly marked to the concerned officer and not routed through the AC/DC. Any documents already pending in the error queue on this account may kindly be brought to the notice of DC (EDI)/System Manager for necessary remedial action by NIC. (S.P.S. PUNDIR) COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (EP)