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 COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, MUMBAI ZONE I, II, & III HELD WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE TRADE AND INSUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS ON 19TH MAY 2004 AT 3.30 P.M. IN THE CONFERENCE HALL OF THE MUMBAI CUSTOM HOUSE.

The Open House Meeting for this month was held under Shri Joseph Dominic, Chief Commissioner of Custom, Mumbai Zone – II on 19.05.2004 in the Conference Hall, 2nd floor, New Custom House, Ballard Estate, Mumbai – 1.

The following officers were present:

1. Shri D.S. Sra, Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai-I
2. Shri C.M. Mehra, Commissioner of Customs (EP), Mumbai-I
3. Shri Ahmed Hussain, Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai-I
4. Shri Y. G. Parande, Commissioner of Customs (Import), A.C.C., Mumbai-II
5. Shri Anil Taneja, Commissioner of Customs (Export), A.C.C., Mumbai – II
6. Shri C.M. Sharma, Addl. Commissioner of Customs, C.C.O., Mumbai-I
7. Shri O. P. Khanduja, Addl. Commissioner of Customs, C.C.O., Mumbai – I
8. Shri Nishith Goyal, Addl. Commissioner of Customs (E.D.I), Mumbai – I
9. Shri Srinivas Rao, Jt. Commissioner of Customs, Nhava Sheva, Mumbai-II
10. Shri Rajendra Singh, Jt. Commissioner of Customs (EP), Mumbai-I
11. Shri Chandrakant Valvi, Jt. Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai – I
12. Smt. Arti Srinivas, Jt. Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai – I
13. Shri Darshan Singh, Jt. Director General of Foreign Trade, Mumbai – I
14. Shri R. S. Sangia, Asstt, Commissioner of Customs, C.C.O., Mumbai – I

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

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

2) ASSOCHAM
Shri George Joseph

3) B.C.C.I. (The Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industries)
Shri Pravin Kanakia

4) BCHAA (Bombay Custom House Agent's Association).
Shri Mark Farnandes
Shri R. Radhakrishnan
Shri Naval H. Mehta
Shri Nimish Desai
Shri H.D. Mehta

5) FIEO
Shri Shyauiti Banerjee

6) IDMA (Indian Drug Manufacture’s Association)
Shri Vasudev Kataria

7) Indian Merchant Chamber
Shri K. M. Doshi

8) MANSA (Mumbai & Nhava Sheva Ship Agents Association)
Col. T. S. Tanwar (Retd.)
Capt. S. P. Rao
Shri Ramesh Bhatia

9) MCCI (Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce & Industries)
Shri H. S. Birdi

10) All India Manufactures Organisation (AIMO)
Shri Babulal B. Todi

11) Association of Importers & Exporters of Man made
Shri Gulam Mohd.

12) Individual / Member of the Public
Shri Rajiv Gupta.

12.1) P & O Needlloyd (I) Pvt. Ltd.
Shri J. Fernandes
Shri Mithilesh Jha

12.2) Atlantic Shipping Pvt. Ltd.
Shri Sandeep Kadam

12.3) Interocean Shipping Pvt. Ltd.
Shri K. Chandersekhar

12.4) Samudra Shipping
Shri Vivek Mahabar
Smt. Gurdeep Kaur Bansal

12.5) Mercan Ship Management Pvt. Ltd.
Shri Irshad Ali

12.6) ULA
Shri Farooq Sara
Shri Pradeep Shinde
Shri Subramaniam

12.7) MSPL
Shri V. B. Tawde
Shri Santosh K. Devrukhkar

12.8) GESA
Shri S. S. Kalyanaraman

12.9) FSL
Shri Vishnu N. P.

2. Shri Joseph Dominic, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone -II chairing the meeting welcomed all the Representations of the Associations of the Trade, Industry and CHAs and the officers present in the meeting. Thereafter, the Chief Commissioner proceeded to discuss the points of the agenda of the Meeting.

3. The Chief Commissioner of Customs emphasised that the Representations of the Trade/ Industry/CHAs should present adequate number of points of interest for the Trade for inclusion in the Agenda for discussion in the future Open House Meetings. The points should be forwarded by 25th of the month to the Office of Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai I/II/III Zone with full details and supporting reference/ documents to enable preparation for purposeful discussion in the meeting. Important points may also be circulated by sponsor of points amongst the other Associations for their views to be presented in discussion.

4. The minutes of previous meetings dated 12th April, 2004 as circulated were adopted. The agenda points were thereafter taken up. The first point was regarding levy of the anti-dumping duty on “Citric-Acid”, It was opined by the representatives that continuation of Anti-dumping duty on Citric Acid of Chinese, Thailand and Indonesian Origin should be reviewed as the five year period is over. The Chief Commissioner stated that “Anti dumping Duty” as per Section 9(1) read with 9A of Customs Tariff Act, and Section 9A & Rules 18 7 20 of The Customs Tariff Rules, 1995, is valid for 5 years unless reviewed and extended further. It is understood that the Ministry does a review and unless it is rescinded, it was to be presumed that the Government’s intention is to continue the duty. However the issue has been taken up with the Board and communication is expected shortly.

4.2. To Verification of Deemed Exports, one of the participant pointed out that before canceling the bond / or Advance Licences, the Custom House conducts verification from Central Excise Authority regarding cases of deemed exports and this causes delays. The Customs House need not seek fresh confirmation regarding receipt of goods by the Controlling Central Excise Authority of the recipient unit as the DGFT has accepted such exports while issuing the EODC.

4.2.1 The Chief Commissioner stated that the DGFT authorities issue the EODC with a clause that it may be accepted subject to verifications. Therefore confirmations by the Jurisdictional Central Excise Authorities regarding the receipt of goods by the deemed importers is required. However, it was assured that there would be no avoidable delays. Any specific case of delay should be brought to the notice of Commissioner/ Addl. Commissioner for remedial action.
4.3.1. The All India Importers and Exporters Association, Mumbai, submitted two points, viz., (i) Management of Documents at Custom House and (ii) HRD in Custom Department. It was pointed out that in the Customs House, it was difficult to trace old documents.
The Chairman accepted the need out for proper management of various documents and files in the Customs House. It was also accepted that lot more is required to be done about handing and management of various documents and files. The Jawahar Custom House has already started an initiative of putting the documentary management system. If this is successful, it can be duplicated in Mumbai Custom House also. This is a long-term proposal and will take about 6 months or a year for complete implementation. There is also space constraint in the Customs House. The Chairman assured that adequate measures would be taken by the Commissioner / Addl. Commissioner to ensure that the documents/ files are stored and handled properly.

5. Following points not in agenda were taken up for discussion.

5.1. The BCHAA representative stated that presently in EDI system, the CMC authorities are not feeding the Replies to the Queries raised by the Assessing Officers without the approval of the concerned officers in writing. This results in delay as the concerned Clearing Agent has to run here and there before feeding the replies in the system. It was contended that the CMC authorities should be directed to accept & feed the replies from the importers or their authorised agents directly and suitable instructions may be issued in this regard.

5.2. The Chief Commissioner informed that necessary instructions will be issued to the CMC authorities manning the “Query Reply Counter” to feed the replies given by the importers directly. However, CHAs should ensure that the Queries are comprehensively replied to avoid further supplementary queries.

5.3. The DYCC has been raising number of queries regarding the testing of samples. Even in cases where the DYCC is not equipped to test the samples, they do not inform the parties concerned. Under these circumstances, the importers / exporters face hardships for speedy testing of their import / export samples. Hence, it was opined that Custom House should issue directions to the DYCC authorities.

5.3.1 After detailed discussion, the meeting was informed that the test reports are being fed on-line and therefore, there cannot be any delay in getting the test-reports. The queries raised by DYCC should be intimated to importers / exporters without delay. For this purpose, a suitable procedure will be devised.

5.4. With regard to Advance filling of IGM by the Steamer Agent and others. Chief Commissioner informed that a separate meeting will be held on 24.05.2004 (Monday) at 16.00 hrs and the matter need not be discussed in the present meeting. The Representative of concerned Association may attend the Review meeting to resolve the difficulties in advance filing of IGM.

6. Keeping in view the agenda points and space constraints, it was emphasised that all the Association attending the meeting are requested to ensure that one or at the most two representatives from their Associations may attend the meeting.

7. The Chief Commissioner of Customs thanked all the members present.

8. The next meeting will be held on 7.06.2004 (Monday) at 15.30 Hrs.. The points sponsored for discussion for the next meeting should reach in the offices of the Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone – I, II and III Zone.

( C.M. SHARMA )
Addl. Commissioner of Customs/C.C.O.
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. Commissioner of Customs (E.D.I.), Mumbai Customs/ J.C.H./ A.C.C., for immediate display on the Website.
4. The Jt. D.G.F.T., 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