Faceless Assessment- Measures for timely assessment of Bills of Entry and clarification on defacement of physical documents - Customs - PUBLIC NOTICE No.72/2020

OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS AIR CARGO COMPLEX (IMPORT) NEW CUSTOMS HOUSE NEAR IGI AIRPORT NEW DELHI-110037 C. No. VIII(12)Import/Tech./PN/06/2020/Pt.1/11527-41 Dated: 19.10.2020 PUBLIC NOTICE No.72/2020 Subject: Faceless Assessment- Measures for timely assessment of Bills of Entry and clarification on defacement of physical documents-reg. Attention is invited to Public Notice No. 59/2020 dated 05.082020 and Public Notice No.69/2020 dated 11.09.2020 on All India roll-out of Faceless Assessment both issued by this Commissionerate, Board s Circular NO. 45/2020-Customs dated 12.10.2020 on captioned subject and ICES Advisory No. 38/2020 dated 14.10.2020 on Enhancement in ICES and certain clarification in respect of Faceless Assessment. 2. While the implementation of Faceless Assessment has been largely smooth, some issues have been noticed, which are impacting pace of assessment and clearance of import consignment. As the prompt and timely assessment of Bills of Entry (BOES) and clearance of imported consignments are key objectives of Turant Customs, these issues have been examined and remedial measures have been identified. Accordingly, the following measures for Faceless Assessment are prescribed: 2.1 The trade is advised to indicate the end use of consignments in case of time-sensitive / urgent consignments such as lifesaving drugs, security / defence related consignments etc. imported by government and its agencies / PSUs etc, so that such consignments can be easily identified by ICES for expeditious assessment and clearance Of cargo. 2.2 The trade is advised to provide the complete details and description of the commodity, brand name, model and any other specifications essential for the assessment in the BOE at the first instance only. It is also advised to upload the supporting documents like product / technical literature and mandatory documents, certificates at the time of filing of a BOE itself to avoid queries and delay on this account. It has also come to notice that sometimes documents are uploaded on e-Sanchit, but are not linked to BOE, leading to a situation where Appraising / Assessing Officer is unable to view the document and is compelled to raise a query. The trade is advised to avoid such situation by linking every uploaded document to the relevant BOE. The step by step guide in this regard has been explained in ICES Advisory No.35/2020 dated 9.102020 on Filing amendment for adding supporting documents to a Bill of Entry which is ailable on https://www.icegate.gov.in/Downloads/ICES Advisory 35 2020 on amendment and query reply with supp docs v2.pdf. the salient features of which are as under: a. to add any additional supporting document(s) to a BOE, either to reply to a query raised by the Customs Officer or otherwise, first step is to upload the document online on e- Sanchit and generate the IRN Number(s); b. next step is to file the amendment to the BOE to add these supporting documents. The amendment can be filed either through Service Centre or online through ICEGATE; The BOE Message Format may be referred to see the online amendment message details, link of which is available on https://www.icegate.gov.in/Download/BE_Message_format_2.7_14Sep_2020.pdf: c. the amendment to add supporting documents does not require officer s approval and is auto-approved. Only the deletion of any document requires officer approval like any other amendment; d. in case the addition of documents is to answer a query raised by the Customs Officers, it is advised that the query is replied to only after following the above steps so that the Customs Officer is able to view the added document along with the query reply. 2.3. Instances have been reported where the assessment of the BOE involving export benefit license or where a bond mandates a requirement of 100% Bank Guarantee (BG) by default and the BOES are recalled by the Assessing Group for removal of the BG requirement. This happens when the percentage of the BG is given as 100 or left blank (null) at the time of registering the corresponding bond in ICES. Wherever the correct percentage of BG has been entered during the bond registration, only that gets applied as default percentage of BG for the corresponding BoEs. To avoid repeated recall and re-assessment, it is advised that the actual applicable percentage of BG associated with the bond may be entered in the Bond Management module in ICES. In case no BG is required, the paca* of BG should be expressly given as zero (0) instead of leaving blank. This way, the ICES will appropriately mandate the actual percentage of BG during the assessment. 2.4. Some problems have also been highlighted regarding amendments under section 149 Of Customs Act, 1962 and consequent re-assessment of BOE, based on the request of the importers to change the elements of assessment. This is typically the case when the importer claims that he has forgotten to claim an exemption or is in possession of some document that requires an element such as freight etc. to be changed. The various scenarios and the prescribed routes for carrying out re-assessment under such scenario shall be as under: a. Scenario 1: Where the amendment is requested before OOC and would impact the assessment: Re-assessment in this scenario would be resorted to only if the BOE has not been given OOC. The request by the importers for those amendments impacting assessment would be sent to FAG for approval and consequent re-assessment (once necessary updation is carried out in the ICES). Accordingly, Notification No. 96/2020-Customs dated 12.10.2020 has been issued to enable FAG officers as proper officers under section 149 of Customs Act, 1962. This scenario would apply in following instances: i. The self-assessed BOE is verified and found in order and the importer seeks an amendment that may impact the assessment. Once recalled for re- assessment, the BOE would be sent for consideration of the same FAG which had assessed the subject BOE previously. ii. The self-assessed BOE is facilitated post which the importer seeks an amendment that may impact the assessment. In such case, the BOE would be sent to the any of the FAG for assessment by the ICES. iii. The self-assessment made by the importer is questioned by the FAG and after due process, the assessment is changed. In this case the importer may either accept the new assessment or seek an assessment order. In both situations, if the importer subsequently seeks an amendment impacting the assessment, the BOE would be sent for consideration of the same FAG which had assessed the subject BOE previously. b. Scenario 2: Where the re-assessment is requested before OOC but would not impact the assessment: This scenario covers situations such as requests for amendments like change in details of invoice based on the documentary evidence, short shipments, change in Air Way Bill or fulfillment of conditionalities decided by assessment such as Bond conditions etc. These amendments shall be approved by respective PAGs Of this Commissionerate. c. Scenario 3: Where the re-assessment is requested after OOC has been given under Section 47 Of Customs Act, 1962: This scenario covers situations where re-assessment with or without amendment is to be carried out for any reason after OOC has been given. The same shall be done by respective PAGs of this Commissionerate. 2.5. Para 3 (ii) of Public Notice No. 52/2020 dated 07.07.2020 issued by this mmissionerate expressly requires submission of original hard copy of a Certificate of Origin COO) for the purpose of defacement / validation. This approach is in line with Operational Certification Procedures for the various Trade agreements notified in terms of Section 5 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. It is, therefore, required that original COO certificate is compulsorily submitted at TSK-2, the contact details of which are as under: S.No. Address Email Id/Phone Number 1. Turant Suvidha Kendra-2 (TSK-2), Room No. 29, Ground Floor, Mobile Zone, Import Shed, ACC (Import), New Delhi-110037 [email protected] Phone No: 011-25601132 2.6. Public Notice No. 52/2020 dated 13.07.2020 and Public Notice No.59/2020 dated 05.08.2020 provides for creation of Turant Suvidha Kendra-I (TSK-I) in this Commissionerate to act as Facilitation Helpdesk for any grievance related to clearances Of the BOE filed at this port. Any grievance related to assessment of BOE may be made with TSK-I, the contact details of which are as under: S.No. Address Email Id/Phone Number 1. Turant Suvidha Kendra-I (TSK-I), Room No. 149, First Floor, New Customs House ACC (Import), New Delhi-110037 [email protected] Phone No: 011-25656564 3. In order to further strengthen Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) relating to assessment and clearance in Faceless Assessment, Shri Debjit Banerjee, Joint Commissioner of Customs, ACC (Import), New Delhi is being designated as Nodal Officer who may serve as a single point interface for the escalation of the grievances at this port. The contact details of Nodal Officer are as under: S. No. Name of Officer Official Address Email Id/Phone Number 1. Shri Debjit Banerjee, Joint commissioner Room No.121, First Floor, NCH, New Delhi-110037 [email protected] Phone No: 011- 25654894 4. A new Appraising Group 3A for Chapter 71 to deal with gems and Jewellery has been created and will be looked after by AC / DC handling charge of Assessment Group 3. All the relating to newly created Assessment Group 3A will be conducted in the same manner as it has been conducted in erstwhile Appraising Group 3. 5. 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. 6. For the departmental officers, this may be treated as Standing Order. 7. Difficulties, if any, may be brought to the notice of Additional Commissioner of Customs (Technical), ACC Import, New Customs House, New Delhi through e-mail on e-mail ID: [email protected]. This issues with the approval of the Principal Commissioner of Customs, ACC (Import). (Nagendra Yadav) Additional Commissioner of Customs (Technical) ACC(Import)