Movement of imported goods from a port direct to CFS of another Customs station - CBEC's Customs Manual 2023 - Customs

16. Movement of imported goods from a port direct to CFS of another Customs station : 16.1 In the interest of reducing transaction cost and dwell time Board has decided that suitable changes in ICES may be carried out to allow direct movement of imported goods from a gateway port to a CFS of another Customs station directly. This was necessitated since the ICES module at present does not allow generation of Sub Manifest Transhipment Permit (SMTP) to allow such movement of imported goods. Till such time the electronic system is made operational the following procedure has been prescribed for direct movement of imported goods from gateway port to a CFS: (i) At the Gateway Port, Customs shall prepare a consolidated list of all SMTP generated CFS-wise for consignments bound for another Customs station/ ICD. This list should be transmitted electronically by the gateway port to the receiving Customs station /ICD. (ii) The goods will move from the gateway port direct to the CFS under cover of a bond accepted by the Customs at the gateway port. The carrier will also carry the relevant SMTP in duplicate and hand over the same to the custodian at the CFS. (iii) On arrival of the goods at the CFS attached to ICD, the custodian of the CFS shall prepare: I. A list of goods/container arrival, on daily basis. This list shall inter alia cover the detail of SMTP generated at the gateway port, a hard copy whereof is received along with the goods/containers. This list shall be signed by the custodians and shall be endorsed by Customs Officer in the CFS. The custodian of the CFS shall forward the list of goods/container arrival, to ICD on daily basis. II. A Landing Certificate on the lines of a Container Arrival list shall be signed by custodian. (iv) The Custodian of CFS shall forward a copy of Landing Certificate duly endorsed by Customs at receiving end to the Customs at the gateway port for recrediting the bond executed with Customs. (v) On arrival of the goods/container inside the CFS, the custodian along with the surveyor, if any, in presence of the Customs Officer shall verify the correctness of details of consignments and will make an endorsement in the SMTP. The endorsed SMTP shall be forwarded to concerned ICD. With receipt of endorsed SMTP and approval of Customs officer at the ICD, local IGM shall be permitted to be filed at Service Center in case of LCL cargo (vi) The Bill of Entry will be filed at the ICD as usual and the goods will be examined and cleared at the CFS. 16.2 This facility shall be extended to CFSs that are at a considerable distance from the ICD, or en-route to an ICD (from the gateway port). Movement of consignments from the gateway ports to CFS adjacent to ICD shall continue to be permitted, as earlier. The furnishing of suitable bond by the custodian of the ICD/CFS with the Customs at the gateway port shall also continue as at present. [Refer Circulars No.47/96-Cus, dated 16-9-1996, No.57/98-Cus, dated 4-8-1998, No. 31/99-Cus, dated 27-5-1999, No.69/99-Cus, dated 6-10-1999,No.34/2000-Cus, dated 35- 2000, No.56/2000-Cus, dated 5-7-2000,No.61/2000-Cus, dated 13-7-2000, No.75/2001-Cus, dated 5-12-2001, No.78/2001-Cus, dated 7-12-2001, No.15/2002-Cus, dated 25-2-2002, No.18/2002-Cus, dated 13-3-2002, No.46/2002-Cus, dated 29-7-2002, No.90/2002-Cus, dated 19-12-2002, No. 61/2003-Cus, dated 18-7-2003, No.87/2003Cus, dated 6-10-2003, No.52/2004-Cus, dated 7-10-2004, No.45/2005-Cus, dated 24-112005, No.46/2005-Cus, dated 24-11-2005, No.47/2005-Cus, dated 24-11-2005, No.24/2006-Cus, dated 25-8-2006, No.6/2007-Cus, dated 22-1-2007, No.14/2007-Cus, dated 16-3-2007,No.31/2005-Cus, dated 25-7-2005, No.18/2009-Cus., dated 8-6-2009, No.4/2010-Cus, dated 15-2-2010 and No.22/2013 Cus., dated 24-5-2013] 16.3 Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations, (SCMTR) 2018: I. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Custom (CBIC) vide notification No. 38/2018Cus (NT) dated 11.05.2018 read with notification No. 65/2018-Cus (NT) dated 30.07.2018 and 88/2018-Cus (NT) dated 30.10.2018 have notified Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations 2018. II. This regulation supersedes the earlier regulations of Import Manifest (Vessels) Regulations, 1971, Export Manifest (Vessels) Regulation, 1976 and Transportation of Goods (Through Foreign Territory) Regulations of 1965. The regulation stipulates changes in timelines and requirements for advance notice by shipping lines (vessels) arriving in India and Exports through shipping lines (vessels) out of India. The Indian Entity representing the Master of the vessel shall have to be registered with the Indian Customs to transact business under the new regulations and shall be called Authorised Sea Carriers (ASC). The agents acting on behalf of the Authorised Sea Carrier (ASC) shall be called as Authorised Sea Agents. As per the new regulations, the Authorised Sea Carrier (ASC)/Authorised Sea Agent (ASA) shall submit an Arrival Manifest electronically, prior to departure from the last port of call to the Indian Port of call. And submit a Departure Manifest electronically before departure from the Indian Port of call. The submission of Arrival and Departure Manifest shall have to be complied with by the ASC/ASA before departure from the last port/customs station of call to every Indian customs station and Departure then on respectively. III. The Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations (SCMTR), 2018, seek to bring about transparency, predictability of movement, advance collection of information for expeditious clearance. It brings various improvements in the current Customs procedures with the objective of reducing errors and facilitating the importers and stakeholders by reducing the processing time and cost. The benefits of the SCMTR, 2018 include inter-alia: (a) Doing away with application for rotation number by Shipping Lines. (b) Availability of complete error-free import manifest for pre-arrival processing. (c) Electronic submission of supporting documents during Entry-Inward. (d) Single registration and a National Bond for transshipment of containers with facility of automated re-crediting (of bonds). (e) Electronic submission of same bottom cargo information (paper-based submission is dispensed with). (f) Electronic one-step processing of transhipment of LCL cargo and sea-sea transhipment. (g) Catering to multi-leg transhipments without any additional steps. (h) Electronic tracking of change in containers in place of paper-based verification/tracking. (i) Eliminating the requirement of repeat submission of details at subsequent ports in case of transhipments. (j) Streamlining filing of stuffing reports thereby reducing time and errors involved. (k) Clear demarcation of logistics and document-based workflow, thereby enabling deployment of IoT in the future such as Smart Gates, Track and Trace, e-seal etc. (l) Alignment of the Customs procedures in line with the logistics movement. IV. Registration: Under the SCMTR regulations, the Person acting as Authorised Carriers (Authorized Sea Carrier, Authorised Transhipper), Authorised Sea Agent, Custodian, Terminal Operator shall have to be approved afresh by the proper officer. The Approval is completely online and faceless. In order to ease of doing business and reduce compliances for EXIM Community, the Board has decided to abolish renewals of Registration in Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations incorporating the following changes: (a) To provide lifetime validity of the licenses/registrations; (b) To enable provision for making the licenses/registrations invalid in case the licensee/registration holder is inactive for the period exceeding 1 year at a time; (c) To empower Principal Commissioner or Commissioner of Customs to renew a license/registration which has been invalidated due to inactivity; and (d) To provide for voluntary surrender of license/registration. [Refer Circular No.17/2021-Customs dated 23.07.2021] V. Transition provision: 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 [Refer Notification No. 56/2022-Customs (N.T.) dated 30.06.2022 ] VI. To Reduce the compliance burden for citizens and business activities, The Board has decided to abolish renewals of Licence/Registration in Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations, 2018 [Refer Circular no. 17/2021 dated 23.07.2021 ] 16.4 Customs procedure for export of cargo in closed containers from ICDs to Bangladesh using inland waterways With a view to facilitate the trade and leveraging the potential of Inland Waterways for enhancing trade and transit, transhipment of containerized export goods of Bangladesh through India using riverine and rail routes has been allowed. This facility involves entry of containerized cargo into India through LCS Hemnagar from where the goods shall be transported to the sea port of Kolkata or Haldia on a barge/vessel using the riverine route agreed under the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade between India and Bangladesh (IBP route) and from where unloading of containers from the barge/vessel and further loading on a railway train at the sea port of Kolkata or Haldia, from where the goods will travel by rail to the sea port of Nhava Sheva or Mundra for export to third countries. This arrangement can help bring in cargoes bound for Chattogram port and dispatch them at a faster rate. Such an arrangement will also cut down the shipping time to Chattogram port, which is three to four days in the case of Colombo and Singapore ports and just two days in the case of ports on India s east coast. LCS, Kulkuli (Indo-Bhutan Border) Further, export of Bangladesh Goods to India by rail in closed containers was permitted. It was decided that empty containers returning from Bangladesh to India on a train may be utilized to carry export goods of Bangladesh to India. This is applicable to closed containers moved by CONCOR carried on trains operated by Indian Railways. [Refer Circular No. 08/2022-Customs dated 17.05.2022 ]