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Faceless Assessment - Measures for timely assessment of Bills of Entry and clarification on defacement of physical documents

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..... 020-Customs, dated 30.07.2020 as well as Instruction No. 09/2020-Customs, dated 05.06.2020 related to Faceless Assessment may also be kindly referred to. 2. Board has reviewed the implementation of Faceless Assessment. While the implementation has been largely smooth, Board's attention has been drawn to some issues impacting the pace of assessment and clearances of consignments. As the prompt and timely assessment of Bills of Entry and clearance of imported consignments are key objectives of Turant Customs, these issues have been examined and remedial measures have been identified. Accordingly, Board prescribes the following measures for Faceless Assessment: 2.1. Continuous Assessment: (i) 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, it is decided to make all Saturdays (except second Saturday) as working day .....

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..... hall 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. (iv) 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 for early disposal and/or resolution of the issues. 2.2. Raising of Queries by FAG Officers: (i) There is a need to ensure that queries are minimized to the extent absolutely necessary for carrying out the assessment. Board therefore directs the NACs 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 pav .....

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..... ssment. 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. 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. 2.3. Resorting to First Checks: (i) 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 as .....

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..... 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. (v) 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. 2.4. Role of RMCC/LRM in Facilitation: (i) It is observed that, 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 N .....

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..... 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 B/E would be sent for consideration of the same FAG which had re-assessed the subject B/E previously. b. Scenario 2: Where the re-assessment is requested before OOC but would not impact the assessment. This scenario covers situations like requests for amendments like change in details of invoice based on the documentary evidence, short shipments, change in BL/AWB or fulfilment of conditionalities decided by assessment such as Bond conditions etc. These amendments may continue to be approved by PAG. c. Scenario 3: Where the re-assessment is requested after OOC has been given under Section 47 of the 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 continue to be done by PAG. (ii) The reassessment being done by Customs officer arising out of vario .....

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..... port may also designate a nodal officer not below the level of Additional/Joint Commissioner who may serve as a single point interface for the escalation of the grievances in such port. The details of the nodal officer and his/her contact details would be made available through Public Notice and in CBIC website for escalation of any issues including the B/Es in the FA requiring urgent attention. The Principal Commissioner/Commissioner at the Port of Import may further make other necessary internal arrangements for co-ordination at the appropriate levels for early resolution. 3. In regard to the establishment of NACs and FAGs for Faceless Assessment, certain inadvertent errors have crept in the Annexure I & II to Circular No.40/2020-Customs, dated 04.09.2020. Further, certain ambiguities have been expressed by field formations in regard to both column 4 and 5 of the Annexure I of this Circular. Accordingly, the Annexures I & II of said Circular have been suitably revised as per attachments to this Circular. Further, Board clarifies the doubts relating to the said Annexures I and II, as follows: (i) Certain inadvertent errors in column 5 of the Annexure I have been rectified. To i .....

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..... Assessment Coverage (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) I 05.06.2020 14 % 5 & 5A - Bengaluru & Chennai (a) Bengaluru - 5, 5A (b) Chennai - 5, 5A II 03.08.2020 21% (i) 3,5,5A,5B - Bengaluru, Chennai & Delhi (ii) Mumbai I,II,III - 2A (a) 3, 5, 5A, 5B - Bengaluru (b) 3, 5, 5A, 5B - Chennai (c) 3, 5, 5A, 5B - Delhi (d) 2A - Mumbai I,II, III III 15.09.2020 50% (i) 5,5A,5B - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai I, II & III, Visakhapatnam (ii) 4 - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Visakhapatnam (iii) 3 - Bengaluru, Chennai & Delhi, Delhi (Prev.), Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli (Prev.), Patna (Prev.), Guwahati (iv) 2G - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi, Meerut and Nagpur, Pune (v) 2A - Mumbai I, II, III, Chennai and Hyderabad (a) 2A,5, 5A, 5B - Mumbai I, II, III (b) 2A - Hyderabad (c) 2G, 4, 5, 5A, 5B - Ahmedabad (d) 2G, 3, 4, 5, 5A, 5B - Bengaluru (e) 2G, 2A 3, 4, 5, 5A, 5B - Chennai (f) 2G, 3, 4, 5, 5A, 5B - Delhi (g) 2G - Bhopal, Meerut, Nagpur, Pune (h) 3 - Delhi (Prev.), Kolkata, Patna (Prev.), Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli (Prev.) (i) 4 - Bhubaneshwar (j) 4,5, 5A, 5B - Visakhapatnam IV 01.10. .....

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..... rappalli (Prev.), Visakhapatnam (iv) 2G - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Delhi (Prev.), Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Meerut, Mumbai I, II & III, Nagpur, Patna (Prev.), Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli (Prev.), Visakhapatnam (v) 2A - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Delhi (Prev.), Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Meerut, Mumbai I, II, III, Nagpur, Patna (Prev.), Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli (Prev.), Visakhapatnam (vi) 1A - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Delhi (Prev.), Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Meerut, Mumbai I, Mumbai II & III, Nagpur, Patna (Prev.), Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli (Prev.), Visakhapatnam (vii) 1,6 - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Delhi (Prev.), Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Meerut, Mumbai I, Mumbai II & III, Nagpur, Patna (Prev.), Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli (Prev.), Visakhapatnam (viii) 2K - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Delhi (Prev.), Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Meerut, Mumbai I, Mumbai II & III, Nagpur, Patna (Prev.), Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli (Prev.), .....

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..... appalli (Prev.) 6. Thiruvananthapuram 7. Vishakhapatnam Kolkata 1. Ahmedabad 2. Delhi 3. Delhi(Prev.) 4. Guwahati 5. Mumbai II 6. Mumbai III 7. Patna (Prev.) Guwahati Mineral Products 1A (27) 1. Ahmedabad 2. Delhi 3. Mumbai I 4. Mumbai II 5. Mumbai III 6. Pune Ahmedabad 1. Bengaluru 2. Bhubaneshwar 3. Chennai 4. Kolkata 5. Tiruchirappalli (Prev) 6. Visakhapatnam Bhubaneshwar Chemicals 1 2,2A,2B,2C,2D,2E and 2F (28-38) 1. Ahmedabad. 2. Delhi 3. Delhi (Prev.) 4. Meerut 5. Mumbai II 6. Mumbai III Mumbai II 1. Chennai 2. Hyderabad 3. Kolkata 4. Mumbai I 5. Thiruvananthapuram 6. Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam Chemicals 2 2G (39) 1. Chennai 2. Hyderabad 3. Mumbai I 4. Mumbai II 5. Mumbai III 6. Visakhapatnam 7. Thiruvananthapuram Mumbai II 1. Ahmedabad 2. Bhopal 3. Delhi 4. Delhi (Prev.) 5. Kolkata 6. Meerut 7. Patna (Prev.) Bhopal Chemicals 3 2H,2I,2J,2K (40-49) 1. Bengaluru 2. Bhopal 3. Chennai 4. Kolkata 5. Nagpur 6. Tiruchirappalli (Prev.) 7. Thiruvananthapuram 8. Visakhapatnam Chennai 1. Ahmedabad 2. Delhi 3. Delhi (Prev.) 4. Meerut 5. Mumbai II 6. Mumbai III 7. Mumbai I 8. Patna (Prev.) 9. Pune Patn .....

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