COVID-19 Facilitation measures- Guidelines for conduct of personal hearings in virtual mode under Customs Act, 1962 - Customs - PUBLIC NOTICE NO. 75/2020

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (IMPORT), PRO CELL, AIR CARGO COMPLEX, SAHAR, ANDHERI (EAST), MUMBAI 400 099 F. No. S/3-MISC-PRO-13/2018-19/ ACC (I) Date : 28.04.2020 PUBLIC NOTICE NO. 75/2020 Subject: COVID-19 Facilitation measures- Guidelines for conduct of personal hearings in virtual mode under Customs Act, 1962 -reg. Attention of the Importers, Trade, Customs Brokers and all the stake holder is invited to Instruction issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs vide F. NO. 390/Misc/3/2019-JC dated 27.04.2020 wherein, it has been decided by the Board that personal hearing, in respect to any proceeding under Customs Act, 1962, given by various authorities, such as Commissioner (A), original adjudicating authorities and Compounding Authority, may be conducted through video Conferencing facility so that various guidelines and instructions issued by the Government and public authorities, with a view to contain the spread of COVID-19, can be complied. 2) The following instruction must be followed to conduct virtual mode of personal hearing through video conferencing facility: (i) In any proceedings before appellate or adjudicating authority under the Customs Act, 1962, the party, either as and applicant or a respondent, shall give his consent to avail the personal hearing before such authority, through video conferencing facility, at the time of filing his appeal or immediately after issue of this public notice in case of pending appeals/adjudication matter. The importer/concerned party should also indicate their email address for correspondence etc. (ii) The date and time of hearing along with a link for the video conference shall be informed in advance to the appellate/respondent or their consultant/counsel and the concerned officer representing revenue through the official email or electronic media of the adjudicating/appellate authority, giving the details of the officer-in-charge who would provide assistance to the party, for conducting the virtual hearing. This link should not be shared with any other person without the approval of the adjudicating/appellate authority. (iii) The Authorised representative, appearing on behalf of the party, in virtual hearing, should file his vakalatnama or authorization letter along with a copy of his photo ID card and contact details to the adjudicating/appellate authority through official E-mail address of the concerned officer after scanning the same. All persons participating in the video conference should be appropriately dressed and maintain the decorum required for such an occasion. (iv) Virtual hearing through video conference shall be held from the office of the concerned officer or any official video conference facility set up in the office of the concerned officer. (v) The virtual hearing through video conference should be conducted through available applications like VIDYO, or other secured computer network. The appellant/respondent should download such application in their computer system/laptop/mobile phone beforehand for ready connectivity during virtual hearing and join the video conferencing at the time allotted to them, as given in point (ii) above. (vi) In cases where the party/his representative wishes to participate in virtual hearing proceeding along with their advocate , they should do so under proper intimation to the concerned authority as mentioned at point (ii) above. They may participate in virtual hearing along with their advocate/authorized representative or join the proceeding from their own office. (vii) The submissions made by the appellant or their representative through video conference will be reduced in writing and a statement of the same will be prepared, which shall be known as record of the personal hearing . A soft copy of such record of the personal hearing in PDF format will be sent to appellant through email ID provided by advocate/appellant/respondent, within one day of such hearing . (viii) If the, appellant /their representative wants to modify the contents of e-mailed record of personal hearing, they can do so and sign the modified record, scan and send back the signed record of personal hearing to the concerned officer through the E-mail. (ix) If however, the appellant/ their representative do not resend the above e-mailed record of personal hearing within 3 days of receipt of such e-mail as per point (viii) above, it will be presumed that they agree with the contents of e-mailed record of personal hearing and adjudicating authority/appellate authority will proceed to decide the case accordingly. No modification in e-mailed record of personal hearing will be entertained after 3 days of its receipt by appellant/their representative. The date of receipt of the email by the appellate/adjudicating authority will not be counted for this purpose. (x) The record of personal hearing submitted in this matter shall be deemed to be a document for the purpose of Customs Act, 1962 in terms of Section 138C of the said Act, read with Section 4 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. (xi) If the party/advocate prefers to submit any documents including additional submissions during the virtual hearing, they may do so by self-attesting such document and a scanned copy of the same may be e-mailed to the adjudicating/appellate authority immediately after virtual hearing and in no case after 3 days of virtual hearing. The date of the hearing will be excluded for this purpose. (xii) Any official representing the Department s side can also participate in the virtual hearing through video conferencing. The Commissionerate concerned shall inform the details in advance regarding such participation, on receipt of intimation as mentioned at point (ii) above. 3) All the Importers, Trade , Customs Brokers and all the stake holder to note the above dispensation made because of COVID-19 crisis and utilise the facility of video conferencing without having to approach the authorities for personal hearing in any matter . 4) All trade associations/members of Customs Brokers Association are requested to take note and publicize the contents of this Public Notice among their members/constituents. 5) For the departmental officers, this may be treated as Standing Order. 6) Difficulty, if any, faced in implementation of this Public Notice may be brought to the notice of the Additional/Joint Commissioner of Customs, Import, ACC, Mumbai. SD/- (VINAYAK AZAAD) Commissioner of Customs (Import) Air Cargo Complex, Mumbai