Procedure for Verification of Assessment of Bill of Entry by Faceless Assessment Group - CBEC's Customs Manual 2025 - Customs

11. Procedure for Verification of Assessment of Bill of Entry by Faceless Assessment Group: I. Procedure to be adopted in normal course: i. Presentation of BE: The importer shall present bill of entry on the Customs Automated System (i.e., ICEGATE portal) electronically, as per Section 46 of the Customs Act, 1962 and upload supporting documents such as Invoice, Packing List, Bill of Lading, as usual in all the cases, and License/Authorisation/Permission, BIS or other registrations, Scrips, Equipment Type Approval, Certificate of Origin, Certificate for claiming duty exemption etc., if required for the consignment, on e-Sanchit. ii. Description of Goods: As at present, the selection of a bill of entry for verification of self-assessment shall primarily be on the basis of risk evaluation through appropriate selection criteria. The importers/Customs Brokers shall give the complete description of the imported goods while filing the Bill of Entry, in the first instance. In this context, the attention of the importers/Customs Brokers may be drawn to the following fields that are available in the electronic Bill of Entry format: Generic Description: The description in generic text relevant to text provided in the duty exemption notification that is claimed/Anti-Dumping (ADD)/IGST levy, as applicable. Specific Description: The description specific to the product and as given in the invoice, trade name or specific product details to be provided (Brand name or model details may be avoided-same needs to be provided separately). Model and Brand Name: Model details and Brand Name may be provided and if the imported goods are unbranded, the text UNBRANDED may be used. Supplier and Manufacturer Details : In cases where duty applicability is based on manufacturers such as Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD), Safeguard Duty (SD) etc, the details of manufacturer may be provided. In case of products attracting ADD, these details would be required to be mandatorily provided. Item Qualifiers: Some imported items may have specific distinguishing characteristics or have industry specific names (e.g. scientific names, IUPAC names etc.). These item names or qualifiers may be declared, as applicable. The illustrative list of such item qualifiers are at Annexure A. DG Systems, CBIC would shortly issue a detailed advisory for guidance of the trade, in this regard. Previous Bills of Entry: The Bill(s) of Entry details of previous import may be mentioned, if available. iii. Execution of Continuity Bond: In cases, where the importer has prior knowledge that there would be a requirement of execution of Bond or Bank guarantee for the assessment of the said bill of entry, such as in the case of a warehouse bill of entry or where the importer has sought provisional assessment or where a claim to any concessional rate of duty or exemption under duty remission/exemption schemes, is subject to filing of Bond/ Bank Guarantee, they should be encouraged to opt for Continuity Bond option, to avoid fresh registration of Bonds every time during filing of bill of entry. iv. Assessment of Bill of Entry: The bill of entry would be assigned to an officer of the concerned Faceless Assessment Group for verification of assessment purposes by the Customs Automated System. For verification of assessment of the bill of entry, the Faceless Assessment Group may decide to: a) return the bill of entry to the importer for payment of duty after verification on the basis of the declaration made and documents available in e-Sanchit; or b) seek additional information or documents for proceeding with the verification; and/or c) get examination and/or testing of goods carried out, for the determination of duty liability and/or for ensuring the compliance of restriction and prohibition; v. Enhancement in the monetary limit for assessment by the Appraising Officers: Board vide Circular 55/2020 dated 17.12.2020 decided to enhance the monetary limit of assessment of Bills of Entry by the Appraising Officers. All Bills of Entry with an assessable value of up to Rupees 5 lakh shall be accordingly finally assessed only by the Appraising Officers, w.e.f 21.12.2020. However, the re-assessments of Bills of Entry would continue to be done with the approval of the Assistant/Deputy Commissioner, as is the present practice. In order to assess the impact of this change, the Board has also decided that 10% of the Bills of Entry that are now entrusted to the Appraising Officers would be subjected to transactional PCA. vi. Assessments in respect of Liquid Bulk Cargo: The Board has also received representations in respect of delays in the assessment of liquid bulk cargo. One common refrain of the trade here is the unnecessary resort to the First Check System of assessment, in such cases. With respect to import of `liquid bulk cargo`, it is stated that the assessments are to be carried out on a provisional basis. This is primarily on account of the ascertainment of actual imported quantity which is done subsequently. Also, at times, there may be a doubt with respect to the composition, product specification etc. Both these aspects do not warrant a First Check system of assessment. The respective NACs assessing such consignments are advised to ensure that all such consignments are subjected to the Second Check system of assessment, with duty being assessed on a provisional basis. Moreover, the concerned officers in the FAGs and the respective NAC Commissioners may be suitably sensitized to follow Board s Circulars No. 34/2016 Cus, dated 26.07.2016 and No. 38/2016-Cus, dated 22.08.2016, while carrying out such assessments. Board has also observed that suitable templates in the form of Public Notices, issued by major Customs Houses are available in the public domain, so as to serve as a ready reckoner and guidance tool for the Assessing Officers, for assessment of liquid bulk cargo. The same maybe incorporated as standard practice by the concerned NACs, with a view to removing any ambiguity in the process to be followed. vii. Assessment during holidays: There may be possible delays in assessment when Bills of Entry (B/E) are assigned to FAGs in locations that are on an official holiday or when assessment is to be done on a closed holiday (say, Sunday). Further, time sensitive goods such as life-saving drugs or imports by security/defence and other Government agencies would require prompt Customs clearance at all times including outside the normal office hours. Hence, all Saturdays (except second Saturday) have been designated as working day for all the faceless assessment groups across the country. The number of locations, officers and their working timings can be fixed keeping in mind the overall objectives. viii. Expediting assessment process: Board observes that, at present, the working hours of the FAGS across the country are not uniform. Thus, there is uneven output such that some officers of a FAG who begin work earlier clear more than the targeted Bills of Entry while others whose working hours begin later do not get sufficient number of Bills of Entry. Moreover, the time take for the first decision by the Appraising Officers and Deputy/Assistant Commissioners of Customs is also much more than necessary resulting in lower than optimum output. Accordingly, with a view to facilitating faster decisions and, in turn, faster verification of self-assessments as well as to promote operationalize and enhance uniformity in assessment, the assessment procedure, shall be adhered to: The working hours of all FAGs shall be uniform from 10 AM till 8 PM on any working day. It is clarified that within these uniform working hours, Chief Commissioners of the NACs shall ensure that no assessing officer is required to work for more than the working hours that are prescribed, as per the existing guidelines of the Government of India. However, considering the nature of Customs functioning, Chief Commissioners of the NACs shall ensure adequate number of assessing officers are available during the holidays as per the fixed roster. Also, in the event of administrative exigencies or local circumstances that may emanate from time to time, the jurisdictional Pr. Commissioner/ Commissioner may permit the officers to work beyond the prescribed time interval of 10 AM to 8 PM by way of issue of local instructions. NACs and jurisdictional Pr. Commissioners/Commissioners of Customs shall administratively monitor that FAGs communicate the first decision on the Bill of Entry within 3 working hours after its allocation. The first decision could be: a) acceptance of the self-assessment, b) query to the importer or c) a First Check, as may be warranted. Jurisdictional Pr. Chief/ Chief Commissioners of Customs shall ensure as far as possible that one Appraising Officer is given responsibility of not more than 2 (two) FAGs. The re-organisation within the zones may be undertaken such that assessing officers at the ports with the expertise of the items under a FAG are allotted to that FAG. The total number of queries which can be raised by an Appraising Officer in respect of a Bill of Entry would now be restricted to 3 (three). Further, such queries can now be raised without seeking approval of the Addl./Joint Commissioner of Customs. In this regard, considering this limit to the number of queries, Board desires that, Appraising Officer raises query in a clear and holistic manner giving reference to supporting details/documents with respect to Valuation/Classification etc., so that the importer does not have any doubt and is in a position to reply categorically for early completion of verification. The option to `set-aside Rs. 5 (five) Bills of Entry, which is already available with the Appraiser/Superintendent would henceforth not require an approval of the Deputy/Assistant Commissioners of Customs. It is expected that the Appraiser/Superintendent would utilize the facility to set aside certain BEs (upto the limit) to address some genuine issues. ix. Monitoring clearance of time-sensitive cargo: The Port of Import should monitor clearance of time-sensitive/urgent consignments such as lifesaving drugs, security/defence related consignments etc. imported by Government and its agencies/PSUs etc. so that these are not delayed. When required, the Port of Import should coordinate their early assessment with NAC concerned and then grant quick clearance. The trade may also be advised to indicate end use of such consignments in the B/E for easier identification of such consignments. DG Systems will facilitate this by enabling a dashboard alerting the officers if such consignments are pending beyond 4 hours. This dashboard would be accessible to both PAG and FAG. DG Systems has enabled dashboards for monitoring of pending FAG B/E, their disposal, and other relevant reports. These dashboards are required to be pro-actively utilised by the NAC/PAG and Principal Commissioners/Commissioners in charge of the Port of Import. The NAC Commissioners shall ensure that the B/Es are assessed and disposed promptly and monitor this via the dashboard for a particular Appraising Group. Likewise, the Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner in charge of the Port of Import shall monitor the disposal of the B/E pending with the PAG and at the stage of examination for their timely disposal. When required, the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner in charge of the Port of Import shall co-ordinate with the NAC Commissioners for prompt disposal of pending B/Es pertaining to his/her Port of Import. One of the five Working Groups established under the NACs is responsible for timely assessments including resolving related IT issues. In the event of increase in the pendency for a particular NAC/FAG, the NAC Commissioners heading this Working Group shall take urgent measures for co-ordination with other NAC Commissioners/DG Systems forearly disposal and/or resolution of the issues. x. Submission of original copy of Certificate of Origin: The Board has been receiving feedback that there is a need for clarity with respect to requirement of submission of original hard copy of a Certificate of Origin (COO) issued under various Free Trade Agreements. As seen in para 4 of Circular No.42/2019-Customs, dated 29.11.2019, which states that the field offices must ensure that no physical copy of any supporting document is submitted and every relevant document is submitted only electronically via e-sanchit either by the beneficiary or by the Participating Government Agency . Likewise, para 3.1 of Circular No.32/2020-Customs, dated 06.07.2020 states: (i) The document verification by Customs officers at Assessment and Customs Compliance Verification (CCV) stages would normally be based on the documents uploaded in the e-Sanchit, not requiring physical submission of documents. However, if in any exceptional situation the physical submission of documents is required by Customs, for defacement or validation, such submission would be made only at the TSKs. (i) Documents requiring verification during examination for validation with goods would continue to be done during examination, as at present. (ii) One or more TSKs may be set up for the convenience of the trade. (iii) Suitable procedures are to be devised for handling safe keeping of the documents produced at TSKs. Ideally these documents should also be kept in electronic form. xi. Uploading of Documents in e-Sanchit: Where the Faceless Assessment Group is of the opinion that additional information or documents are required for proceeding with the verification of assessment, the Faceless Assessment Group shall raise query electronically for additional information or seek additional documents, preferably in a consolidated manner, through ICEGATE portal. The importer shall respond to the query electronically and/or provide additional documents through e-Sanchit. After scrutinizing the same, the Faceless Assessment Group shall: a) Return the bill of entry to the importer for payment of duty after verification; or b) Not agree with the self-assessment and re-assess the bill of entry. In this case, if the importer does not agree with the re-assessment, the Faceless Assessment Group shall issue a speaking order, as prescribed in Section 17(5) of the Customs Act, 1962 following the procedure referred to in paragraph 5.4 of this instruction. Since, documents are essential for carrying out verification of self-assessment by the FAG and their non-submission at the stage of filing the Bill of Entry delays the verification/assessment process. Therefore, these supporting documents are mandatorily required to be uploaded in e-Sanchit by the importers/Customs Brokers, in such situations. The illustrative list of the required documents along with their document code and description is at Annexure B of Circular 55/2020-Customs 17.12.2020. xii. Raising of Queries by FAG Officers: There is a need to ensure that queries are minimized to the extent absolutely necessary for carrying out the assessment. In this regard the NACs have to get the analysis done in respect of the queries being raised on commodities pertaining to Chapters/Articles under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 and while weeding out avoidable queries, to the extent possible standardize the queries across Customs formations. This would also pave the path for incorporating these standard queries in the CCR instructions centrally inserted by RMD. Based on this exercise, the NACs are also requested to have Public Notices/Trade Notices issued by Jurisdictional Principal Commissioners/Commissioners to apprise the trade about the details/information needed for the assessment, thereby obviating the need to raise queries and resultantly reduce the time for clearance. A copy of the Public Notices/Trade Notices should be sent to Joint Secretary, Customs, CBIC. (i) Queries should not be raised in piecemeal manner and to the extent possible multiple and repeat queries are to be avoided. The jurisdictional Principal Commissioners/Commissioners shall regularly monitor and review the queries to ensure this. In this regard reference may also be made to Circular No. 22/2015-Customs, dated 03.09.2015 directing that genuine clarifications sought by officers from importers/exporters are to be raised at one go and not in a piecemeal manner. (ii) Trade needs to be sensitized/informed to/of the advantages of providing at the first instance only, the complete details and description of the commodity, brand name, model and any other specifications essential for the assessment. Further, trade may be asked to upload at the first instance only, supporting documents like product/technical literature and mandatory documents, certificates, which would help avoid queries and delays. (iii) At times, the documents are uploaded on e-Sanchit but are not linked to B/E, leading to a situation where Appraising/Assessing officer is unable to view the document and is thus compelled to raise a query. The trade needs to be advised to avoid such situation by linking every uploaded document to the relevant B/E. (iv) Some instances have been noticed, where confirmation of compliance to prohibitions and restrictions are being sought during assessment including submission of certain certificates, details etc. leading to delay in the assessment. It is clarified that the verification of statutory compliances is to be checked only during Customs Compliance Verification (CCV) stage at the Port of Import. (v) While Appraising/Assessment officer can make a suitable remark in the system for such verification by the Port of Import, the B/E shall not be kept pending for assessment. The Working Group on Prohibitions/Restrictions are advised to identify the item wise CCV requirements for uniformity in the FAG and also communicate the same to RMCC for their central enforcement. Once this is done, the Appraising/Assessment officer would no longer need to insert a remark to this effect in the system. xiii. First Checks: The Faceless Assessment Group may order for first check examination or testing of the goods with specific directions or testing parameters to the shed officers at the port of import. The responsibility for sending the samples to the appropriate laboratory with the requisite test memo, if ordered by Faceless Assessment Group would lie with the shed officers at the port of import. Upon review of the practice of the FAG officers resorting to First Check, it is clear that this practice needs to be streamlined both for purposes of uniformity across the country and different FAGs and also to address associated delays in assessment. Board has thus identified the following imports/situations where First Check (this term as well as the term Second Check is being used as it is well known in the field and trade) shall ordinarily be resorted to by the FAG officers for carrying out assessment: (a) Old and used machinery/capital goods provided the Inspection/Appraisement report from the country of export is not available in the format prescribed or is not produced at all or is insufficient as per Circular No.07/2020-Customs, dated 05.02.2020. (b) Old and used goods where the examination is essential to determine valuation, classification, and other parameters. This does not include the cases covered under 2nd proviso to Section 46(1) of the Customs Act, 1962. (c) Articles of jewellery, precious metals, imitation jewellery where valuation must be ascertained by a jewellery expert. (d) Cases of re-import of goods under various exemption notification, which requires establishment of identity to the satisfaction of Deputy Commissioner/Assistant Commissioner of Customs. Further, the NAC must review and streamline the examination orders/instructions in cases pertaining to para 2.3 (i) (a) to (d) above, to avoid divergent practices. NACs shall send the compilation of such streamlined orders/Instructions to Joint Secretary (Customs) and the same shall be forwarded to RMCC for incorporating the same as a part of RMS Instructions. On receipt of such compilation, RMCC in co-ordination with DG Systems shall effect changes in the system such that, those cases which are determined for verification under First Check are routed directly to the shed with RMS generated examination orders thus obviating the requirement of a FAG officer at this initial juncture in the flow of B/E. Based on the examination report, the B/E would be assigned to FAG for completion of the assessment. All other instances, including the FOC (Free of Charge) and temporary import consignments, must ordinarily be resorted to only Second Check. However, in the exceptional instance when the FAG has genuine reasons to believe that a First Check examination report is required for completion of assessment i.e., determination of valuation, classification, rate of duty, and other parameters relevant for determination of Customs duty, the same may be ordered only with the approval of Joint Commissioner/Additional Commissioner in the Customs Automated System. It is clarified that this would include the cases where importer himself requests for First Check. NAC on fortnightly basis has to review First Checks ordered with the approval of Joint Commissioner/Additional Commissioner to assess if the same can either be avoided altogether or made a part of the standard RMS Examination Order generated by RMCC or converted to Second Check. These instances would be required to be informed to Joint Secretary (Customs), CBIC for further action. Where an importer requests First Check on a regular basis, the FAG officers and the NAC must take due care that this request is genuine and is not being routinely used to avoid self-assessment. xiv. Second Check Examination: The Faceless Assessment Group may, whether in course of accepting the self- assessment or re-assessing the bill of entry, order for second check examination of the goods including the directions to the shed officers at the port of import to verify original documents, deface documents, take custody of the document, NOC from PGAs, verification of Country of Origin Certificate etc. Further, it is clarified that, wherever situation warrants that the authenticity of any document submitted through e-Sanchit has to be verified through any external agency, such communication shall be made by the port of import. i. Where the Faceless Assessment Group is of the opinion that examination and/or testing of goods is required for proper verification of the assessment, based on own assessment or on the request from importer: xv. Role of RMCC/LRM in Facilitation: Since, examination orders given by different officers in the same situation are at variance or not clear. It is also seen that at time these examination orders merely duplicate the instruction given by RMCC. The FAG officers shall not duplicate the RMCC instructions, rather only supplement the same to provide additional directions based on local inputs. The Examination orders would be made available shortly through the ICETAB, obviating the need for printing in the paper. Further, the Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner may review the additional directions supplemented by the FAG officers every fortnight, for standardisation across NACs. RMCC shall also work towards generation of the centralised examination orders based on various parameters and rollout the same in phases to enhance uniformity. RMCC and the NACs shall co-ordinate for the implementation of the same. To bring uniformity in LRM instructions across the country, to the extent possible, NACs may review the local risk targets related to assessment. Those targets that merit PAN India applicability would be referred to RMCC for examination and further necessary action. The balance targets would be either weeded out if found redundant or continue, if found otherwise. However, all local alerts shall be reviewed periodically and continued, only if found absolutely necessary. LRM is also advised to use ICES to insert general instructions and Alerts rather than through the RMS. xvi. Examination Report: The shed officers/Centralised Cell, as the case may be at the port of import would feed the examination and/or the test report, when it is received from the laboratory, in the system and refer the bill of entry back to Faceless Assessment Group, and thereupon, Faceless Assessment Group shall follow the procedure as laid down in paragraph (IV) to (VI) of 5.3.1, as applicable. xvii. Provisional Assessment: If the Faceless Assessment Group concludes that the prior testing of goods is going to take considerable time and the bill of entry should be assessed provisionally, they may refer the bill of entry to the PAG at the port of import, following the procedure stipulated for the same clearly specifying the reasons thereof. In such cases, the bill of entry would be assessed by PAG at the port of import, after the receipt of the examination/test report. xviii. Action under Section 124: If the imported goods are found to be subject to some restriction or prohibition or mis-declared, on the basis of said test and/or examination report fed by the shed officers at the port of import, the Faceless Assessment Group shall refer the bill of entry to PAG at the port of import for action including action under Section 124 of the Customs Act, 1962 or any time after the bill of entry is returned from Faceless Assessment Groups to the port of import, if the import of goods are found to be subject to some restriction or prohibition or mis-declared, PAG may carry out re-assessment and initiate action as prescribed under section 124 of the Customs Act, 1962, if required. xix. Amendment u/s 149 and Re-assessment of B/E: Several representations have been received regarding dealing with amendments under section 149 of Customs Act,1962 and consequent reassessment of B/E, 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 reassessment are detailed at Sl No. 2.5 of Circular 45/2020 dated 12.10.2020. The Board emphasizes that the process of re-assessment must be in accordance with the provisions of Sub Sections (4) and (5) of Section 17 of Customs Act, 1962. In order to lend clarity and streamline this process, the procedure to be adopted by the FAGs for carrying out re-assessment, wherever required is as as follows: (i) During verification of the assessment, if there are reasons to believe that the self-assessment is not done correctly, or additional details are required to complete the verification, necessary clarifications should be sought from the importer/Customs Broker through the query module of ICES. (ii) While raising the query, all the aspects of additional information required for finalization should be covered and clearly worded. Also, as far as possible, multiple queries need to be avoided and all the information may be solicited in one-go and not in a piece-meal manner. (iii) Pr. Commissioners / Commissioners across the NACs may ensure that minimal queries are raised by the concerned FAGs and may devise their own mechanism to regularly monitor the same, in a manner that needless and repeated queries, which have the effect of delaying assessments, are avoided. (iv) Based on the reply to the query, the FAG may either accept the self- assessment or proceed to re-assess the Bill of Entry. (v) While re-assessing the Bill of Entry, it must be ensured that the importer is given an opportunity to justify the self-assessment either in writing or in person through Video Conferencing. The importer, can, if he so desires, waive off this requirement in writing. No re-assessment, which would lead to change in classification, valuation and/or applicability of notification etc, should be carried out, unless an opportunity is provided to the importer for presenting his/her viewpoint. (vi) Where the assessing officer re-assesses the Bill of Entry and where the importer does not accept the change in assessment in writing, through the query module in ICES, the proper officer shall mandatorily issue a speaking order without delay and in accordance with Sub-Section (5) of Section 17 of Customs Act, 1962. xx. Speaking Order: For any re-assessment done by the Faceless Assessment Group, which is at variance with the self-assessment done by the importer and in cases other than those where the importer confirms his acceptance of the said re-assessment electronically in reply to the query raised by the assessing officer, the Faceless Assessment Groups shall pass a speaking order on the re-assessment, within fifteen days from the date of re-assessment of the bill of entry, as prescribed in section 17(5). The Faceless Assessment Groups shall provide an opportunity to be heard to the importer, in accordance with the principles of natural justice, before proceeding with the re-assessment of the bill of entry. In the event a personal hearing is sought by the importer, the same can be conducted through video conferencing or other reliable technological means at the option of the importer. In this regard, the Board s guidelines vide F.No. 390/Misc/3/2019-JC dated 27th April 2020 may also be referred to. xxi. Appellate Proceedings: Any appeal against any speaking order on re- assessment passed by Faceless Assessment Groups shall lie before the Commissioner (Appeals) as per Notification No.51/2020-Customs (N.T.) dated 05.06.2020. Thus, an appeal against an order passed by the proper officer of the Faceless Assessment Group as per Section 17(5) and/or Section 18, would lie with the Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) having jurisdiction over the port of import. xxii. Review Proceedings: The review of any speaking order on re-assessment passed by a proper officer of Faceless Assessment Groups, under sub-section (2) of Section 129D of the Customs Act, 1962, shall lie with the reviewing authority having administrative control over the that proper officer of the Faceless Assessment Group. xxiii. Demands under Section 28 of the Customs Act, 1962: Issuing of demands under Section 28 of the Customs Act, 1962, adjudication thereof and handling of audit objections shall be done by the officers of the port of import. In matters where clarifications and inputs are required to be given by the Faceless Assessment Groups to port of import in such matter, the nodal Commissionerates as in para 4 above shall co-ordinate with the ports of import. xxiv. Provisional Assessment i. If the requisite approval for provisional assessment as per the Customs Act, 1962 and departmental guidelines has already been obtained, the Faceless Assessment Group may assess the bill of entry provisionally. The bond and bank guarantee for the same are to be registered with the Turant Suvidha Kendra at the port of import, as referred to in paragraph 5.2.2 of this instruction. ii. If the Faceless Assessment Group concludes that the prior testing of goods is going to take considerable time and the bill of entry should be assessed provisionally, they may refer the bill of entry to the PAG at the port of import, following the procedure stipulated in 5.3.2 and clearly specifying the reasons thereof. In such cases, the bill of entry would be assessed by PAG at the port of import, after the receipt of the examination/test report. iii. After receipt of the required test reports etc from the shed officers at the port of import, the finalisation of provisional assessment shall be done by the officers of PAG of the port of import. xxv. Amendment of Bills of Entry i. Directorate General of Systems has enabled a facility whereby requests for amendments can be made online via ICEGATE Portal. ii. Once the amendments are filed online, System would queue them before the proper officer of the Faceless Assessment Group if the bill of entry is pending for verification. In all other cases, the request would be queued to the proper officer of the Port Assessment Group. iii. The facility of online levy of Amendment fees as per Levy of Fees (Customs Documents) Regulations, 1970 has also been enabled. The applicable fee would be included in the duty challan for payment. xxvi. Storage of goods u/s 49: It is clarified that, irrespective of pending verification at Faceless assessment Group, if the importer requests for storage of the imported goods in warehouse pending clearance under Section 49 of the Customs Act, 1962, such request shall be processed by officers of the port of import promptly. xxvii. Adherence to CCR of RMS: The shed officers at the port of import would carry out the necessary verification or examination or other tasks, as required by the Faceless Assessment Groups or required as per Compulsory Compliance Requirements of the Risk Management System. II. Procedure to be Adopted by Faceless Assessment Groups in Exceptional Circumstances. In certain exceptional circumstances (listed below) the proper officer of the Faceless Assessment Groups may, with the approval of a senior officer not below the rank of Joint Commissioner/Additional Commissioner, transfer the bill of entry using the Customs Automated System to PAG at the port of import for assessment, without completion of verification of assessment. The Faceless Assessment Groups may also transfer a bill of entry to the PAG in any other exceptional circumstances, but in this case, this would be done after due approval from the Commissioner supervising the proper officer. (a) Where the Faceless Assessment Groups has reasons to believe that the imported goods may be liable for confiscation as per the provisions of Section 111 of the Customs Act, 1962. In such circumstance, the reasons for such a transfer shall be duly recorded in the Customs Automated System. However, such cases may be referred to only in genuinely exceptional circumstances. (b) In respect of `related party` transactions warranting investigation by SVB (other than cases that are already covered by an earlier order of the SVB such as in the case of continuing imports which have earlier been taken up for investigation by the SVB). In this case the port of import would refer the case to its jurisdictional Special Valuation Branch (SVB) for further investigation. (c) Even after various several electronic query-based interactions with importer, the Faceless Assessment Groups is not able to complete the verification for want of additional documents, test reports etc. III. Procedure to be Adopted by Port of Import in Exceptional Circumstances Notwithstanding anything mentioned above, the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs at port of import may, at any stage pending at Faceless Assessment Groups, direct the PAG to pull the bill of entry from Faceless Assessment to the PAG in the following situations: a) Where specific alert or intelligence is available pertaining to the said bill of entry or class of bill of entry; and b) Where the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs has ordered to do so for the reasons to be recorded in writing.