Guidelines on issuance of new Warehouse License, submission of the monthly statements of warehoused goods, and extension of validity of warehouse License - Customs - PUBLIC NOTICE NO. 34/2017

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS CUSTOM HOUSE, PORT AREA, VISAKHAPATNAM - 530035 F No. S4/945/2017 - Bonds Date: 24/Aug/2017 PUBLIC NOTICE NO. 34/2017 Subject: - Guidelines on issuance of new Warehouse License, submission of the monthly statements of warehoused goods, and extension of validity of warehouse License Reg. Attention of all importers, Custom House Brokers, Members of the Trade and others to the new warehouse Licensing Regulations, 2016. The Board vide notification nos. 70/2016, 71/2016 and 72/2016 issued regulations for grant of Public, Private and Special warehouse respectively. Also the Board vide Circular No. 25/2016-Customs dated 08-Jun-2016 directed warehouse licensees for maintenance of records in relation to warehoused goods in digital form only (Circular No. 31/2016-Customs dated 06-Jul-2016 in case of DFS). More than a year has been lapsed from the time of issuance of new Warehousing Regulations from the Board, and it has been noticed that the new warehouse license applicants are not submitting all the required documents for grant of new warehouse License. Hereafter the applicants have to fulfill all the obligations (which also includes the installation of IT enabled Systems with Audit Trail Feature) as per new warehousing regulations for granting New/ Renewal of warehouse License. It is also noticed that some of the warehouse licensees are not complying with para 3 (a) (i) of Circular No 25/2016-Customs dated 08-Jun-2016 i.e., filing with the bond officer a monthly return of the receipt, storage, operations and removal of the goods in the warehouse, within ten days after the close of the month to which such return relates. Hence all Licensees are hereby directed to submit their monthly statements in the prescribed form within the stipulated time period. And regarding extension on the validity of the license, it was observed that the licensee is applying for extension in the eleventh hour of expiry of their validity and in some cases after the expiry of validity. Hence forth it is directed to all the stakeholders to submit required documents well in advance (unless submission of such document is beyond control) for extension of License Validity. In future all such deviations will be taken up for Adjudication proceedings under relevant provisions of CA 1962 and Rules and Regulations made thereon. (Dr. D.K. Srinivas) Commissioner of Customs