Export Procedure Sealing of Containerized Cargo - Customs - Facility Notice: - 28/2017

OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS CUSTOM HOUSE AHMEDABAD - 380009 F. No:-VIII/48-54/Cus/T/2017 Dated:-08.09.2017 Facility Notice: - 28/2017 Sub: Export Procedure Sealing of Containerized Cargo reg 1 All the Exporters Trade are herby informed that Central Board of Excise Customs vide its Circular No. 26/2017-Customs dated 01.07.2017 Circular No 36/2017-cus, dated 28.08.2017 issued vide F.No. 450/08/2015-cus IV have issued revised guidelines for sealing of containers effective form 01.10.2017. Board has in the past issued various circulars both on the Excise and Customs side on the issue of sealing of containers. At present, there are three categories of containers which arrive at the port/ICD: a. Containers stuffed at factory premises or warehouse under self-sealing procedure. b. Containers stuffed/sealed at factory premises or warehouse under supervision of Central Excise officer. c. Containers stuffed and sealed at Container Freight Stations/ Inland Container Depot 2. For the sake of uniformity and ease of doing business, Board has decided to simplify the procedure relating to factory stuffing hitherto carried out under the supervision of the Central Excise officers. It is the endeavor of the Board to create a trust based environment where compliance in accordance with the extant laws is ensured by strengthening Risk Management System and Intelligence setup of the department. Accordingly, Board has decided to lay down a simplified procedure for stuffing and sealing of export goods in containers. It has been decided to do away with the sealing of containers with export goods by CBEC officials. 3 In this regard, the procedure for self -sealing permission for fresh exporters will as under:- a) The exporter shall be under an obligation to inform the details of the premises whether a factory or warehouse or any other place where container stuffing is to be carried out, to the jurisdictional customs officer of the Division in whose Jurisdiction the factory is situated at least 15 days before the first planned export along with necessary information as per format enclosed as Annexure-A b) The exporter should be registered under the CST should be filing GSTRI CSTR2. c) The Exporter will submit a list of persons , along with their specimen signatures (maximum three) , who are authorized on behalf of the Exporter to do the self sealing and self - certification as per format enclosed as Annexure-B' d) Submit copies of their identity proof (with photograph) and proof of Address of each individual authorized signatory attested by the exporter along with a certificate of signatures verification form any of the Scheduled Commercial Banks(copies of Bank Pass Book/Aadhar Number ) e) The Exporter will submit attested copies of IEC issued by DGFT /GSTIN. f) The Exporter will submit copies of ownership documents of the premises /factory or rental /leave agreement where stuffing of the export goods into containers is to be done. 4. The Intimation along with its enclosure will be received by Officer at Division Office, and a duly acknowledged copy would be returned to the exporter. The Superintendent/inspector shall inspect the premises with regard to the viability of stuffing of containers in the premises and submit a report to the Deputy/Assistant Commissioner of Customs (Division Office) within 48 hours. 5. The Deputy/Assistant, Division Office shall forward the proposal to the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs, who would consider granting permission of self sealing of export containers at the required premises. 6. Self sealing permission once given by a Principal Commissioner/Commissioner Customs shall be valid for export at all the customs stations. 7. Subsequently, the exporter shall intimate the shipment/self -sealing particulars to the Superintendent of customs (Division) one day in advance to the planned stuffing as per format enclosed as Annexure-DI'. The intimation, in this regard shall clearly mention the place address of the approved premises, description of export goods whether or not any incentive is being claimed. a. Where the visit report of the Superintendent or an Inspector of Customs regarding viability of the stuffing at the factory/premises is not favorable, the exporter shall bring the goods to the Container Freight Station/Inland Container Depot/Port for sealing purpose. 9. Where exporter is not a GST registrant, he shall bring the export goods to a Container Freight Station/Inland Container Depot for stuffing and sealing of container. However, in certain situations, an exporter may follow the self- sealing procedure even if he is not required be registered under CST Laws. Such an exception is available to the Status Holders recognized by DGFT under a valid status holder certificate issued in this regard. 10. The exporter intending to clear export goods on self-clearance (without employing a Customs Broker) shall file the Shipping Bill under digital signature. 11. All consignments in self-sealed containers shall be subject to risk based criteria and intelligence, if any, for examination/inspection at the port of export. At the port/ICD as the case may be, the customs officer would verify the integrity of the electronic seals to check for tampering if any enroute. The Risk Management System (RMS) is being suitably revamped to improvise the interdiction/ examination norms. However, random or intelligence based selection of such containers for examination/scanning would continue. 12. The Exporter are herby informed to contact at following offices in respect of their self sealing request based on their factory address to the Customs office having Jurisdiction over his/her factory detailed as under in specified Annexure annexed to this Public Notice:- SR NO NAME OF THE OFFICE/ADDRESS JURISDICTION 1 PALDI DIVISION OFFICE OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT/DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS CUSTOMS DIVISION PALDI - VIDHYALAYA CHAMBERS , PALDI CHAR RASTA, AHMEDABAD- 380006 DISTRICT OF AHMEDABAD ANAND, BANASKANTHA, DAHOD, GANDHINAGAR, KHEDA, MEHSANA, PATAN, PANCHMAHAL, SABARKANTHA, VADODARA 2 SURAT DIVISION OFFICE OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT/DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS DIVISION WRAT URMI COMPLEX, BEHIND CENTRE POINT, SACRAMPURA, SURAT DISTRICT OF SURAT, BHARUCH INCLUDING COASTEL AREA FROM UBHRAT (DISTRICT SURAT) TO KAVI (DISTRICT BHARUCH) 3 VALSAD DIVISION OFFICE OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER CUSTOMS DIVISION, VALSAD 3 RD FLOOR 0M PLAZA, DHARMAPUR ROAD, ABRAHMA, VALSAD -396 002 DISTRICT OF NAVSARI, VALSAD, DAANG IN GUJARAT STATE, UNION TERRITORIES OF DAMAN, DADRA NAGAR HAVELI. COASTEL AREA FROM UBHRAT (IN NORTH NAVSARI DISTRUICT) TO BORDI (IN SOUTH UMBERGOAN TALUKA) 13. In this regard, the procedure for self -sealing permission for regular exporters who were exporting the goods earlier under factory stuffing and self sealing AEO's of export containers is prescribed in the Board Circular 36/2017-cus, dated 28.08.2017. Para 2 (a), (b), (d), (e) (f) of the said circular is reproduced below:- 2(a) the exporters who were availing sealing at their factory premises under the system of supervised factory stuffing, will be automatically entitled for self-sealing procedure. All exporter AEOs will also be eligible for self- sealing. It is clarified that all those exporters who are already operating under the self sealing procedure need not approach the jurisdiction Customs Authorities for the self-sealing permission. 2(b) The permission to self seal the export goods from a particular premise, under the revised procedure, once granted shall be valid unless withdrawn by the jurisdictional Principal commissioner or Commissioner of Customs if non-compliance to law, rules regulations is noticed. In case the exporter makes a request for a change in the approved premise(s), then the procedure prescribed in circular 26/201 7-Cus shall be followed a fresh permission granted before commencement of self -sealing at the new premises. 2(d) Under the new procedure, the exporter will be obliged to declare the physical serial number of the e-seal at the time of filling the online integrated shipping bill or in the case of manual shipping bill or in the case of manual shipping bill before the container is dispatched for the designated port/ICD/LCS. 2(e) exporters shall directly procure RFID seals from vendors confirming to the standard specification mentioned in Para 3 of the Board's Circular 36/2017-Cus dated 28.08.2017. Since the procedure seeks to enhance integrity of transportation of goods, the exporter will be required to obtain seals directly. They shall provide details such as IEC etc., at the time of purchase for identification as well as for using the standard web application necessary to support an RFID self sealing ecosystem. 2(f) In case RFID seals of the containers are found to be tampered with then mandatory examination would be carried out by the Customs Authorities. 14. The Standard Specification of the Seal is specified in Para 3 of the Board's Circular no 36/201 7-cus, dated 28.08.2017 Para 3 (a), (b) (c) (d) are reproduced below:- 3(a) The electronic seal referred to in Para 9(Vii) of the circular No 26/2017-Customs dated 01.07.2017 shall be an RFID tamper proof one time bolt seal each bearing a unique serial number. The exporters shall be responsible for procuring the seals at their own cost for use in self sealing. 3(b) Each Seal shall be one time bolt seal bearing a unique serial number and brand of the vendor in the format ABCD XXXX XXXX where ABCD stands for the brand of the vendor and X(8 digit) is a numerical digit from 0-9. 3 (c ) The RFD seal shall confirm to ISO 17712.2013 (H) and ISO/IEC 18000-6 Class 1 Gen 2 which is globally accepted in industrial applications and can be read with the use of UHF (i.e 860 MHz to 960 MHz) Reader Scanners. 3(d) The manufacturer or vendor , as the case may be , shall be in possession of certification required for conformance of the ISO standard 17712:2013 (h) namely clause 4,5 6. Before commencement of sales the vendor shall submit self certified copies of the above certifications to Risk Management Division (RMD) and all the ICD/Ports where he intends to operate along with the unique series of the seals proposed to the offered for sale. The Information sought form exporter in Para 9(vii) of the Circular 26/2017-cus, dated 01.07.2017 is specified in Para 4 of Board's Circular no 36/2017-cus, dated 28.08.2017 which is reproduced as under:- 4(a) it is clarified that the information sought from the exporter in Para 9 (vii) of the circular 26/2017-Cus shall now be read as:- IEC (Importer exporter Code) Shipping Bill Number Shipping Bill Date E-seal Number Date of Sealing Time of Sealing Destination Customs Station for export Container Number Trailer Truck Number It is further clarified that the information need not be mounted in the electronic seal but tagged to seal using a web/mobile application to be provided by the vendor of the RFID seals. Data once uploaded by the exporter should not be capable of being overwritten or edited. 4(b) All vendors will be required to transmit information Para (a) above to RMD and respective destination ports/lCDs of export declared by exporters. The arrangement for transmission of data may be worked out in consultation with the RMD and nodal customs officers at each ICD/Port. 4(c) all vendors shall be required to make arrangement for reading/scanning of RFID one -time Bolt seals at the Customs ports/ICDs at their own cost whether through handheld readers or fixed readers. 4(d) the integrity of the RFID seal would be verified by the Customs officer at the port/ICD by using the reader-scanners which are connected to Data Retrieval System of vendor. 4(e) since all ICDs /ports where containerized cargo is handled would require reader scanners Principal Commissioner or commissioner exercising administrative control over such ports. 4(f) the Transaction history of the self sealing should be visible to the exporters for their reference. 4(g) the vendor shall also undertake to integrate the information stored on the data retrieval server ICEGATE at his own cost as specified by DG Systems. Any deviation from the procedure laid out in this Facility Notice or nay violation under Customs Act, 1962 rules regulations made there under or any other law for the time being in force, will be viewed seriously which may result in withdrawal of the self sealing facility accorded to the exporter /or initiation of any other proceedings under the Customs Act, 1962 rules regulations made there under or any other laws for time being in force. 15. Following officers of the Rank of Superintendent/Appraiser at Following Ports are specified as Nodal Officer:- Sr No Name of the Formation Nodal Officer Shri/Mr 1 ICD Khodi ar/CFS, Adaiaj Murlidhar Yadav 2 ICD Sanand Jatin Shah 3 ICD Sachana M A Patel 4 Hazira Premraj Meena 5 Surat Hira Bourse Sarweshwar Khairnar 6 ICD Ankleshawar Shambhu Da al Meena 7 ICD Dashrath Arien Martin Lather 8 ICD Sachin Anil chauhan 9 ICD kribcho Abraham Var hese 10 ICD Tumb Mohit Gupta 11 ICD Valvada R K Meena 12 Dahej R S Sharma 13 Surat CH/Magdalla Subodh Kumar 14 Custom Division Valsad Amit Topno The Nodal Officer shall be responsible for combination of the arrangements for installation of reader-scanners whether fixed or hand - held. 16. The relevant Circular No 26/2017-customs dated 01.07.2017 along with elaborated guidelines can be accessed at :- http://cbec.gov.in/resources//htdocs-cbec/customs/cs-circulars/cs-circulars-2017/circ26-2017cs.pdf The relevant Circular No 36/2017-Customs dated 28.08.2017 along with elaborated guidelines can be accessed at :-http://cbec.gov.in/resources//htdocs-cbec/customs/cs-circulars/cs-circulars-2017/circ36-2017cs-revised.pdf 17. Difficulties faced, if any, may be brought to the notice of the Department. [Bharati Chavan] Principal Commissioner Customs, Ahmedabad