Guidelines for clearance of factory stuffed containers and e-sealed by the exporter themselves at Visakhapatnam Port - Customs - PUBLIC NOTICE NO. 27/2018

OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS CUSTOM HOUSE: PORT AREA: VISAKHAPATNAM - 530 035 F. No. P3/06/2017-Stats(AM) Date : 28.06.2018 PUBLIC NOTICE NO. 27/2018 Sub: Guidelines for clearance of factory stuffed containers and e-sealed by the exporter themselves at Visakhapatnam Port - Reg. Attention of all exporters, customs brokers, members of general trade, and all other stakeholders is invited to refer to the procedure for introducing and implementing electronic sealing for containers by exporters under self-sealing procedure prescribed vide this office s Public Notice Nos. 26/2017 dated 02.07.2017 and 36/2017 dated 06.09.2017 [Board s Circular No. 26/2017-Customs dated 1.7.2017 and Circular No. 36/2017-Cus. dated 28.8.2017 refers]. 2. Sometimes due to selection by Risk Management System, the factory stuffed containers and e-sealed by the exporter themselves (including reefer containers and dry containers) are being picked up for examination at the time of registration of goods at VCTPL. As Visakhapatnam Container Terminal is not a designated place for examination of the containers, the goods/containers selected for examination are being diverted to CFS for examination. It has been brought to the notice of the undersigned that in case of consignments consisting two or more containers, diverting all the containers to CFS for examination is causing difficulty to the exporters as they have to arrange for transportation of the containers from VCTPL to CFS. 3. In order to address these issues, the following guidelines are prescribed to be followed for clearance of the factory stuffed containers and e-sealed by the exporter themselves: 3.1 At VCTPL (i) Registration of goods shall be done by the Customs officer at VCTPL as usual after verification of details of self sealed container with reference to Annexure-C and scanning of e-seals. Once registration is done, the same should not be cancelled at any later stage. (ii) In case the goods are selected for examination by the Risk Management System, such consignments shall be diverted to CFS for examination. However, in case of consignments consisting more than one container, the exporter/CB shall certify/identify the container(s) in which the selected packages were stuffed. The officer at VCTPL shall certify the intactness of the seals of those containers and record the examination order/details of packages selected for examination manually on the Check list of the shipping bill and marked to CFS for examination (iii) The Customs officer then shall allow the exporter/CB to move only those selected/identified containers to any of the CFSs of their choice, and the remaining containers shall remain with the custodian at VCTPL. (iv) The Customs officer shall maintain a proper record of the details of such containers which are moved from VCTPL to CFS for examination. 3.2 At CFS (i) After the selected containers arrived at CFS, the Examiner/Inspector (PO)/ Superintendent/Appraising Officer, as the case may be, shall verify the seals of the containers recorded on the Checklist of the Shipping Bill by the Customs Officer at VCTPL. (ii) If the seal is found to be intact, the Examiner/Inspector (PO)/ Superintendent/Appraising Officer shall break the seals and examine the goods/containers as per the examination order recorded by the Customs officer at VCTPL and record the examination report on the Checklist of the Shipping Bill manually. (iii) If the seal is found to be mis-matched or tampered with, 100% examination of the goods/container shall be done with the prior approval of the concerned DC/AC (CFS) and record the examination report on the Checklist of the Shipping Bill manually. (iv) Once examination is completed, the container(s) shall be sealed with liner seal by the officer who examined the goods. The examination report along with seal number(s) shall be endorsed on the Checklist of the Shipping Bill manually and marked to Customs Officer at VCTPL for further action. (v) A proper record of the details of such containers which are diverted to CFS from VCTPL for examination should also be maintained at CFS. 3.3 At VCTPL (i) Once the container(s) arrived at VCTPL from CFS after examination of the packages/goods, the Customs Officer at VCTPL shall verify the intactness of the seals of the containers affixed at CFS as recorded on the Checklist of the Shipping Bill by the officer at CFS. (ii) If the seal is found to be intact, the Customs Officer then shall feed the examination report in the systems as recorded by the Examiner/Inspector/ Superintendent/Appraising Officer at CFS and accordingly give Let Export. (iii) If the seal is found to be mis-matched or tampered with, the same shall be reported to DC/AC (Docks/VCTPL) for further necessary orders. 4. Notwithstanding the above guidelines, in case of reefer containers, exporters are requested to avail the facility of factory stuffing and sealing of reefer containers with perishable/temperature sensitive export goods in the presence of Customs officials in terms of the revised instructions for stuffing and sealing of reefer containers contained in this office s Public Notice No. 22/2018 dated 01.06.2018 [Board s Circular No. 13/2018-Customs dated 30.05.2018 refers]. 5. Difficulties, if any, may be brought to the notice of the undersigned. - Sd - (Dr. D. K. Srinivas) (Commissioner of Customs)