OFFICE OF THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, MUMBAI ZONE - I,
NEW CUSTOM HOUSE, BALLARD ESTATE, MUMBAI 400 001.

MINUTES OF THE OPEN HOUSE MEETING OF THE CHIEF COMMISSIONERS OF CUSTOMS, MUMBAI ZONE-I, II & III HELD WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE TRADE AND INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS ON 31st May, 2006 AT 3.30 P.M. IN THE CONFERENCE HALL OF THE MUMBAI CUSTOM HOUSE.

1. The Open House Meeting for the month of May, 2006 was held under the Chairmenship of Shri K. M. Tiwari, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone – I, Shri P. C. Jha, Chief Commissioner of Customs. Mumbai Zone-II and Shri Sumit Dutt Majumder, Chief Commissioner of Customs. Mumbai Zone-III, on 31.05.2006, at 3.30 P.M. in the Conference Hall, New Custom House, Ballard Estate, Mumbai - 400 001. Shri K. Anantha Padmanabhan, Commissioner of Customs (EP) was also present during the meeting.

2. The following representatives of the BCHAA, Trade and Industry attended the meeting:

1) BCHAA (Bombay Custom House Agent's Association).
Shri Naval H. Mehta
Shri R. Radhakrishnan
Shri Rajiv Desai

MANSA (Mumbai and Nhava-Sheva Ship-Agents Association)
Shri C. S. Murty

2) AIIEA (All India Importers & Exporters Association)
Shri Mohan Nihalani

3) D.M.A.I.
Shri S. Srinivasan

4) Chamber of Indian Industry
Shri C. M. Tungare
Shri Pratap S. Mungi

5) ASSOCHAM
Shri George Joseph

6) Indian Merchants Chamber
Shri Mark S. Fernandes

7) Individual / Member of the Public
Shri Rajiv Gupta

3. At the outset, the Chief Commissioners of Customs, welcomed all the representatives of the Associations of the Trade, Industry and C.H.As., and the officers present in the meeting. The Members of the House thanked Shri P. C. Jha, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone II, for the initiative taken for obtaining the multi-banking facility at JNCH for payment of Customs duty. Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone I assured the House that such facility would be extended to the other jurisdictional ports too, as a Trade Facilitation measure.

4. Both the Chief Commissioners of Customs Zone I & II, thanked the Trade for having brought in such changes through the sustained efforts from their side too. The Chief Commissioner also conveyed to the Trade that because of the introduction of RMS, nearly 50 % of the Import consignments were getting cleared within a day as such, it (RMS) is helping in boosting the revenue collection.

5. Shri K. Anantha Padmanabhan, Commissioner of Customs (EP) was introduced to the House, who was welcome by everyone present. Thereafter, the Minutes of the previous meeting were taken up for discussion.

6. With regard to Point no. 3.2 of the previous minutes relating to “Transmission of Test Report”, the Chief Commissioner Zone I informed that a High Speed scanner has been installed and already transmission has begun in the 3 Assessing Groups and, sooner such facility will be extended to all the Groups. Chief Commissioner Zone I clarified that the complete test report shall be transmited the same day on which the test report is prepared. Chief Commissioner Zone I, further assured the house that the Test report transmission through the system would not only begin very soon and would also be monitored by Joint Commissioners/Commissioners.

7. Thereafter, the agenda point as forwarded by MANSA was taken up for discussion.
7.1 Regarding the ongoing dispute between M/s. Meridian Shipping Agency Pvt. Ltd. And M/s. Consolidated Shipping Line (India) Pvt. Ltd. in relation to shipment to Durban, the Chief Commissioners gave a patient hearing to the case represented by M/s. Meridian Shipping Agency Pvt. Ltd., and suggested that since the Customs have no role to play, the matter may be taken up with the Ministry of Shipping and, as suggested by one of the members, with the Ministry of Commerce too. Shri P. C. Jha, Chief Commissioner Zone II stated that necessary support would be lent by the Customs when the matter is taken up with the concerned departmens/Ministries and a copy endorsed to the Customs.

8. The agenda points raised by confederation of Indian Industry were, thereafter, taken up by the House, for discussion.
8.1 Regarding the point “Uploading of Amendment of Shipping Bill No. 5411704 dated 16.11.2005, the Chief Commissioner Zone I explained that since the said Shipping Bill had gone into history, no amendment was possible and hence a Manual Amendment certificate was issued.
As the concerned Member of the House stated that such manual certificate would not suffice, it was suggested that the matter may be taken up with the Joint DGFT, Mumbai again for issuance of revised DEPB on the basis of the Manual Amendment certificate.
8.2 With regard to the point “Non availability of Shipping Bill for online application”, when it was explained that all the listed Shipping Bills have been retransmitted to DGFT by EDI, the concerned member agreed with it that such retransmission has been taking place and the matter is settled satisfactorily.
8.3 Regarding the point “Duty free Import Authorisation Scheme” it was informed by the Chief Commissioner Zone I that the software patch has been uploaded on the system on 29.05.2006 and hence there should be no problems in the future in this regard. The house agreed with the Chief Commissioner.

9. The meeting thereafter ended with thanks to the Chair.

10. The next Open House Meeting will be held on 28th June, 2006 at 15.30 hrs. The points sponsored for discussion for the next meeting should reach POSITIVELY by 23rd June, 2006 in the offices of the Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone I, II and III. Points received after the said date, will be taken up for discussion only in the next Open House Meeting.

Sd/-
(MANISH MOHAN)
Joint Commissioner of Customs
Chief Commissioner’s Office
Mumbai- I

Copy to :
1. The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone II and III.
2. All Commissioners of Customs, Mumbai Zone I, II and III.
3. The Addl./Joint Commissioners of Customs (E.D.I.), Mumbai Customs/Jawahar Custom House, Nhava Sheva/Air Cargo Complex, Mumbai – for immediate uploading of the Minutes on the website.
4. Shri S. S. Sandhu, Zonal Jt. D.G.F.T., Mumbai.
5. Shri Rajeev Jain, Additional Director (Systems), NCH, Mumbai.

Copy for information and wide circulation to :
All Associations with a request to inform all their members to view the Minutes of the Meeting on the Website of Mumbai Customs at www.mumbaicustoms.gov.in