Circular No.ES/86/2019-20 July 4, 2019
To: Members of the Council
Sub: Need for better communication and coordination to avoid delay in assessment or examination and subsequent clearance of consignment from the docks
Dear Member,
JNCH has issued Public Notice No. 62/2019 dated 03/07/2019 as they had received grievances from the Members of Trade informing about inordinate delay in examination and subsequent clearance of goods from the docks.
According to JNCH –
Delays are mainly due to lack of communication of a query / objection raised by the Docks to the Customs Broker (CB) / importer in a timely manner or
Due to raising of unwarranted queries.
Apart from upsetting the planned schedule for the receipt of imported goods for further economic activity, such delays incur costs for the importer and exporter by way of additional demurrage and rentals. Therefore, to resolve this issue JNCH has issued Standing Order No.12/2019 dated 27/06/2019.
Reasons for delay as per the Customs –
All goods should be presented by the importer/CB for examination at CFS during the working hours on the day of online registration of bill of entry itself.
A Customs officer may require submission of any document/certificate etc. for examination of goods or for giving out of charge which are not available in e-Sanchit.
After implementation of ‘Turant Customs’ there is a scope of raising query through the EDI system in Docks.
There may be delay in the process of clearance since it may involve – query raising, its reply and then queuing up again in the Out of Charge (OOC) module.
JNCH has decided that –
The Docks officers shall raise query for documents etc. if any, on the docket pertaining to the concerned bill of entry and hand it over to the authorized pass holder employee of the CHA/CB or authorised person of importer in case of self- clearance by the importer.
In token of having handed over the query document, the concerned officer will obtain acknowledgement for the same from CHA/CB.
The officer, raising the query on the docket will also obtain a photo copy of the said document and will preserve the same for the purpose of records.
What action will be taken by Customs, if reply to query not answered within 24 hours –
Submission to the reply of a query by Importer/CB should be within 24 hours.
On submission of reply, the officer will take endorsement from CB/Importer with date and time.
If query raised on the docket remains unanswered beyond 24 hours, the concerned officer will raise the same in the system and will, accordingly, submit the report to DC/AC Docks.
Trade to ensure that queries raised in Docks on the docket are replied within 24 hours for faster clearance of goods so that it does not give scope to raise the query through system beyond 24 hours as it unnecessarily increases the dwell time.
Members are requested to make a note of the above instructions and act accordingly.
In case of any difficulty, the specific issue may be brought to the notice of Deputy/Assistant Commissioner in charge of DC/AC Appraising main (Import), NS-I (email address: appraisingmain.jnch@gov.in)
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
S.BALARAJU
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
