Person filing the manifest to be registered - CBEC's Customs Manual 2023 - Customs

5. Person filing the manifest to be registered: 5.1 In terms of the Import Manifest (Vessels) Regulations, 1971 and Import Manifest (Aircrafts) Regulations, 1976 any person, who delivers the import manifest for a vessel or an aircraft to the proper officer under Section 30 of the Customs Act, 1962 is required to be registered with Customs. 5.2 In order to ensure that the Import Manifest for vessel or aircraft is filed prior to arrival of vessel or aircraft, the following procedure has been formulated: i. The person responsible for filing of the Import Manifest, both at Master as well as House-level details, shall register with the Customs in advance. The application for registration shall be made to the jurisdictional Commissioner in Form V or Form VI, as the case may be, of the said Regulations. The application should be accompanied by an undertaking to file the manifest details as required. ii. Airlines/Steamer Agents/Shipping Lines/Consol Agents (including any other person notified as per Section 30 of the Customs Act, 1962 ) are assigned business category codes as AL , SA, SL and CN, respectively. For the purpose of registration of Airlines/Steamer Agents/Shipping Lines, the existing Airline Code or Steamer Agents Code or Shipping Lines Code already allotted to them shall be used for filing manifest and same shall be their registration number. As regards consol agents, their registration number shall be of 12 digits (10-digit Income Tax PAN, followed by business category code, i.e. CN). A sample of registration number of a consol agent will look like AAACK8719PCN. iii. Airlines/Steamer Agents/Shipping Lines/Consol Agents are required to submit the Information as per the prescribed Annexure A which is a system complaint from that contains information prescribed as per the Form V and Form VI of the Import Manifest (Aircraft) Regulations, 1976 and Import Manifest (Vessels) Regulations, 1971 respectively, to the respective Commissioners, where they are operating, for capturing the details in the EDI System. iv. In the case of chartered flights where the consol agents themselves are entrusted with the responsibility of filing both Master as well as House-level details, the consol agents will have to be registered with the Customs as airline agent and will be allotted an ad-hoc/temporary code (accepted by system), as per existing format for each such flight. v. Access to the system for filing IGM details will be allowed after the receipt of the applications, in the Annexure A along with a self-declaration of the correctness of the particulars, by the jurisdictional Commissioner. The verification of details will be done subsequently and for this the applicant will mention in Annexure A the name of the Commissionerate i.e. Port/Airport/ICD of verification where their details would be verified. In the case of any discrepancies observed at the time of verification the registered party would be debarred from filing IGM. The concerned Commissionerate after the verification will send the registration number along with the name of the registered entity to webmaster of www.cbic.gov.in who in turn will post the details on the website for the information of all stakeholders. Verification of the declaration will be done only by the Port/Airport/ICD of verification mentioned in Annexure A and no other port etc. will be required to do further verification. In case of doubt, they may refer the same to the Commissioner of Port/Airport/ICD of verification . vi. The responsibility for filing the import manifest with Master level details shall rest with the person in-charge of the vessel or aircraft or their agent while the House e level details shall be filed by any other person specified under Section 30 of the Customs Act, 1962 . In case the any other person is not registered under the said Regulations, then, the responsibility to file House level details shall also rest with the person in-charge of the vessel or aircraft or their agent. The shipping lines or airlines should, therefore, ensure that the person authorized to issue delivery orders in respect of goods carried by them, are duly registered with Customs. Failure to file the IGM in advance will invite action as per Section 30(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 . vii. At Customs stations having operational Indian Customs EDI (ICES) system, the IGM shall be filed through electronic mode. At other i.e. non-EDI Customs stations, the hard copies of IGM shall be required to be filed manually, in advance as per the Section 30 of Customs Act, 1962 . Where ICES is operational but some Bills of Entry are filed manually, hard copy of IGM will have to be filed but late filing of hard copy will not be considered as non-filing or late filing of IGM, provided that the soft copy is filed in time. viii. In the case of vessels, where the voyage from the last port of call exceeds 4 days, the IGM shall be filed at least 48 hours before the entry inward of such vessels. In the case of short haul voyages, i.e., where the voyage from the last port of call is less than 4 days, the IGM is required to be filed 10 hours before entry inward of the vessel. ix. In the case of long haul flights i.e. flight time of at least 3 hours from the last airport, the IGM shall be filed within 2 hours before the arrival of the aircraft and for short haul flights, before the arrival of the aircraft. Further, flights in domestic sector, which carry transshipped imported goods from one Indian airport to another airport in India, would be treated as short haul flight for the purpose of filing IGM under Section 30 of the Customs Act, 1962 . x. The vessel's stores list and list of private property in possession of the Master, officer and crew etc. should contain the quantity of store on board at the time of departure from the last port of call and estimated quantity likely to be consumed till the grant of entry inward. xi. At the time of registration, the requirement stipulated in the para 5 of Form V and Form VI of the Import Manifest (Aircraft) Regulations, 1976 and Import Manifest (Vessel) Regulations, 1971 respectively. 5.3 Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations, 2018 (SCMTR): CBIC vide notification No.38/2018-Customs (N.T.) dated 11.05.2018 has notified Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations, 2018 . The SCMTR seek to bring about transparency, predictability of movement, advance collection of information for expeditious clearance and supersedes the earlier regulations viz. Import Manifest (Vessels) Regulations, 1971 , Export Manifest (Vessels) Regulation, 1976 and Transportation of Goods (Through Foreign Territory) Regulations, 1965 . The new regulations stipulate changes in timelines and requirements for advance notice by authorized carriers for goods arriving in or being exported out of India through gateway seaports and further movement between Customs stations. They stipulate the obligations, roles and responsibilities for the various stakeholders involved in movement of imported/export goods. The implementation plan and timelines for mandatory compliance pertaining to stakeholders such as Authorised Sea Carriers (ASC)/ Authorised Sea Agents (ASA), ANC (Other Notified Carriers- like Freight forwarders, NVOCCs etc) and ATP (Authorized Transhippers), and the documents to be filed by them have been laid down in annexure to Circular No.43/2020-Customs dated 30th September, 2020 . The Declarations under SCMTR are to be provided in the new message format. The DG Systems has developed the new formats for submission by different stakeholders. Since there is a change in the manner of reporting, the regulation has provided the transitional provisions for submission under old and new formats simultaneously, so as to cause less disruption to the trade and provide time for adoption of new processes. Currently the transitional provisions have been extended till 31.12.2022 vide notification No.56/2022-Customs (N.T.) dated 30.06.2022. [Refer Circulars No.110/2003-Customs, dated 22-12-2003 , No. 15/2004-Customs, dated 16-2-2004 and No. 30/2004-Customs, dated 16-4-2004 , No.43/2020-Customs dated 30-09-2020 , No.17/2021-Customs dated 23.07.2021 ]