Circular No. ES/252/2020-21 7th July, 2020
To : Members of the Council
Sub.: Circular No.32/2020-Customs dt 6th July 2020 on Turant Customs – Turant Suvidha Kendra and Other Initiatives for Contactless Customs
Dear Member,
CBIC has issued Circular No. 32/2020-Customs dated 6th July, 2020 regarding Turant Customs – Turant Suvidha Kendra and Other Initiatives for Contactless Customs.
Under its flagship ‘Turant Customs’ programme aimed at providing a ‘Faceless, Contactless and Paperless’ Customs administration, CBIC has recently introduced a number of initiatives that leverage technology in order to enhance the efficiency in the Customs clearance processes thereby leading to speedy clearances, transparency in decision making, ease of doing business and reduce physical contact in the prevailing pandemic situation. These initiatives include automated clearances of Bills of Entry, digitisation of Customs documents, paperless clearance, Faceless Assessment and establishment of Turant Suvidha Kendra at Bengaluru and Chennai vide Circulars No.05/2020-Customs, dated 27.01.2020, No.19/2020-Customs, dated 13.04.2020 and No.28/2020-Customs, dated 05.06.2020 respectively.
Continuing with the aforementioned initiatives and with a view to further prepare the ground for applying the reforms pan-India, CBIC has now decided to take certain measures, which are given below.
Turant Suvidha Kendra in All Customs Formations:
Circular No.28/2020-Customs, dated 05.06.2020 provided for setting up Turant Suvidha Kendras (TSK) for the purpose of implementation of 1st Phase of Faceless Assessment at Bengaluru and Chennai and Instruction No.09/2020-Customs dated 05.06.2020, details the roles and functions of TSKs.
Considering the benefits ushered in by providing a single point interface, Board has decided to extend TSKs to all the Customs formations for carrying out the functions mentioned in para 5 of the said Circular. The Principal Chief Commissioners of Customs/ Chief Commissioners of Customs are advised to set up the TSKs in all Customs stations by 15.07.2020. This step is being taken in advance of the pan-India rollout Faceless Assessment, which would be done in phases to be announced soon.
The broad scheme of the TSK would be as follows:
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.
II. Documents requiring verification during examination for validation with goods would continue to be done during the examination, as at present.
III. One or more TSKs may be set up for the convenience of the trade.
IV. Suitable procedures are to be devised for handling & safekeeping of the documents produced at TSKs. Ideally, these documents should also be kept in electronic form.
At the behest of Board, DG Systems, CBIC has enabled w.e.f. 06.07.2020 certain functionalities in ICEGATE which would reduce the need for physical interaction between Customs and trade and also speed up the Customs clearance process. These new functionalities are as follows:
Registration of Authorised Dealer Code, Bank Accounts through ICEGATE
Automated debit of bond after Assessment
Simplified Registration of Importers/Exporters in ICEGATE
The aforementioned initiatives are expected to enhance trade facilitation as well as improve the efficiency of the Customs processes.
For more information about the above new functionalities, members may kindly refer to Circular No. 32/2020-Customs.
Members are advised to kindly make full use of the new initiatives and make their Customs clearance process a pleasant experience.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
S.BALARAJU
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
