TIOL-DDT 2755
31 12 2015
Thursday

IN view of representations received from trade & industry in respect of delay in adjudication of cases of live Bills of Entry, to cut down the cost of imports and to bring down the dwell time involved, the Jawaharlal Nehru Customs Commissioner has directed all the Addl. Commissioners, Asst./Dy. Commissioners of Customs, Appraisers in-charge of Assessment Groups that the adjudication cases arising out of objection raised by the Docks staff, of a live Bill of Entry should possibly be completed within 3 working days of receipt of the objection from the Docks, in the event if the importer waives the issuance of Show Cause Notice.

JN Customs Standing Order No. 58/2015., Dated: December 29, 2015

Imports from China - Govt Withdraws "Transitional Product Specific Safeguard Duty"Rules

AS per Section 8C(1) of the Customs Tariff Act, if the Central Government, after conducting such enquiry as it deems fit, is satisfied that any article is imported into India, from the People's Republic of China, in such increased quantities and under such conditions so as to cause or threatening to cause market disruption to domestic industry, then, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, impose a safeguard duty on that article:

Section 8C(6) empowers the Government to make rules for this purpose and the Government had by Notification No. 34/2002-NT-CUSTOMS, dated the 11th June, 2002 issued the Customs Tariff (Transitional Product Specific Safeguard Duty) Rules.

Now, the Government has rescinded the Customs Tariff (Transitional Product Specific Safeguard Duty) Rules.

We recently reported an interesting decision in the matter of section 8C.  Please see 2015-TIOL-2888-HC-MUM-CUS.

Notification No. 149/2015-CUSTOMS (N.T.), Dated: December 29, 2015

Pantnagar Notified as ICD

CBEC has notified Pantnagar, District Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand as an Inland Container Depot for unloading of imported goods and loading of export goods.

Notification No. 148/2015-CUSTOMS (N.T.), Dated: December 29, 2015

Customs - Preferential Trade Agreement between India and ASEAN - Rates reduced

GOVERNMENT  has reduced the rates of duty on many items covered under the Preferential Trade Agreement between India and Member States of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Notification No. 46/2011-Cus dated 01.06.2011 is amended.

Notification No. 58/2015-CUSTOMS, Dated: December 30, 2015

Customs - Preferential Trade Agreement between India and Malaysia - Rates reduced

GOVERNMENT has reduced the rates of duty on many items covered under the Preferential Trade Agreement between India and Malaysia. Notification No. 53/2011-Cus dated 01.07.2011 is amended.

Notification No. 59/2015-CUSTOMS, Dated: December 30, 2015

Customs - Preferential Trade Agreement between India and Korea-Rates reduced

GOVERNMENT has reduced the rates of duty on many items covered under the Preferential Trade Agreement between India and Korea. Notification No. 152/2009-Cus dated 31.12.2009 is amended.

Notification No. 60/2015-CUSTOMS, Dated: December 30, 2015

Customs - Chickpeas and Lentils- Exemption Extended

AS per Sl. No. 21A of the Table in Notification 12/2012-Cus., 'Chickpeas (garbanzos)' falling under Tariff Item 0713 20 00 attracts Nil rate of duty.

As per Sl. No. 21B of the Table in Notification 12/2012-Cus., Lentils falling under Tariff Item 0713 40 00 attracts Nil rate of duty.

Both these exemptions are to expire today, 31st December 2015, as per clause (ab) and clause (ad) of the Proviso to the Notification. Now, the Government has omitted these clauses thereby extending the validity of the exemption from and beyond 1st January 2016. There is no sunset clause now for these.

Notification No. 61/2015-CUSTOMS, Dated: December 30, 2015

Mentioning of e-mail id & phone no. in all official correspondences

THE JN Customs Commissioner states in a Standing Order,

Excellent communication can effectively contribute and have a greater impact in minimizing the dwell time involved in clearance of import and export cargoes. For effective and efficient communication, we need to be sure that we are invariably mentioning the e-mail id and phone nos. in all the correspondence which we make both with inter-office and outside agencies/departments etc.

So, he has directed all the Asst./Dy. Commissioners and Addl. Commissioners under the jurisdictions of the JNCH to create a separate e-mail id in their respective Groups/Sections/CFSs and invariably mention the e-mail id and phone nos. in all the correspondence which they make with inter-offices or outside agencies/departments etc. so that the time involved in exchanging the message is minimized and the assessments/official work is carried out swiftly without wasting much time. While mentioning the e-mail id and phone nos. in the correspondences, it should also be ensured that the e-mails are regularly checked on daily basis and the necessary action is taken accordingly without any delay.

Hopefully, they would be using only the e-mail services provided by NIC, the Implementing Agency of the Government of India for official communications. Presumably, they are aware of this email policy of the Government of India.

Does this apply to Commissioners and above?

JN Customs Standing Order No. 57/2015., Dated: December 29, 2015

Customs - Delay in Forwarding Test Reports

IT has been brought to the notice of the JN Customs that the assessments of live Bill of Entry are unduly delayed due to the delay in forwarding of Test Reports received from the testing laboratories/agencies by the Central Sample Cell.

As a measure of Ease of Doing Business and bringing down the dwell time involved, the Commissioner has directed all the Asst./Dy. Commissioners in-charge of Groups and Docks

1. To create a separate e-mail id in their respective Groups/Sections/CFSs(Specific to charge) and invariably mention the e-mail id and phone nos. in the Test Memo.

2. The Asst./Dy. Commissioner of Customs, in-charge of Central Sample Cell shall ensure forwarding of the soft copy of test reports received from the testing laboratories/agencies by e-mail to the respective assessing Groups/CFSs, in addition to forwarding the hard copies through tapal/messenger, so that the consignments are cleared quickly on receipt of the soft copy and the dwell time involved is brought down to a minimum level.

3. All the Asst./Dy. Commissioners in-charge of assessing groups should ensure that the e-mails are regularly checked on daily basis and the consignments are assessed accordingly without any delay.

JN Customs Standing Order No. 56/2015., Dated: December 29, 2015

E-Filing of Appeals - CBDT Initiative

CBDT plans to make e-filing of appeals before the CIT(Appeals) mandatory. (As already reported yesterday in our Mixed Buzz).

CBDT has only issued a Press Release on this subject. The Notification/Circular/Instruction may be in the pipeline. We hope they have the systems ready to file the appeal online along with all the relevant documents.

This is a good initiative that could save tons of paper. Further it would make filing appeals a simpler process.

The CBEC which claims to be ready to implement GST should also think of following the CBDT.

Now in a Revenue Building, it is very difficult to find the Appellate Commissioner's office and then one should go through different floors and layers before one could file an appeal.

There is also a lot of human interface which creates avoidable problems.

Let us hope the New Year will see a new appeals environment.

Until Tomorrow with more DDT

Have a nice day.

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