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

F. No. S/I–22(6) 2005 CCO

Date : 01.04.2005

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 INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS ON 24th March, 2005 AT 3.30 P.M. IN THE CONFERENCE HALL OF THE MUMBAI CUSTOM HOUSE.

The Open House Meeting for the month of March, 2005 was held under the Chairmanship of Shri Joseph Dominic, Chief Commissioner, Customs Zone-II and Shri K. M. Tiwari, Chief Commissioner, Customs Zone – I on 24.03.2005 at 3.30 P.M. in the Conference Hall, 2nd floor, New Custom House, Ballard Estate, Mumbai – 400 001. The following senior officers of the department attended the meeting.

1. Shri D.S. Sra, Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai - I
2. Shri K. P. Mishra, Commissioner of Customs (EP), Mumbai-I.
3. Shri Y. G. Parande, Commissioner of Customs (Import), ACC, Mumbai-II.
4. Shri Ajay Dixit, Additional Commissioner of Customs (EP), Mumbai-I.
5. Shri Rajendra Singh, Joint Commissioner of Customs (CCO), Mumbai – I.
6. Shri Satish Dongre, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai-I. 
7. Shri Chandrakant Valvi, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai-I. 
8. Smt. M. M. Joshi, Assistant Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai-I.
9. Shri. D. H. Vaingankar, Assistant Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai-I.
10. Shri Prashant, NIC Officer, Mumbai-I.

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

1) BCHAA (Bombay Custom House Agent’s Association).
Shri Nimesh Desai
Shri Omprakash Agrawal
Shri Rajesh Gosalia
Shri R. Radhakrishnan
Shri Pankaj Shah
Shri Kiran Rambhia
Shri Naval H. Mehta.
Shri H. D. Mehta.

2) Tata Group
Shri Rajendra Nair

3) ASSOCHAM.
Shri George Joseph.

4) D.M.D.I.
Shri S. Srinivasan

5) Indian Merchant Chamber
Shri K. M. Doshi

6) I. D. M. A.
Shri Vasudev kataria

7) M.C.C.I.A. 
Shri Ashish Pednekar

8) S. R. T. E. P. C. 
Shri A. Ravindra Kumar.


2. The Open House meeting began with the Chief Commissioners welcoming all the Members. They called upon the Members and all present in the meeting to extend their co-operation and make all-out efforts to achieve the Revenue Target for the current Financial Year for the Customs Zone, Mumbai. It was also informed that all the Customs would be working on all the Holidays including Saturdays and Sundays during the month of March, 2005.

3. Shri K.M.Doshi referred to para 3 of the minutes of the previous Open House Meeting held on 22.02.2005 and pointed out that Drawback claims were still pending finalisation with JNP Customs. The Chief Commissioner stated that he would personally look into the matter and get the cases finalized early.
(Action: CC (Exports), Nhava Sheva)

4. Representatives of BCHAA pointed out that formats of Bank Guarantees for EPCG adopted by different Custom formations in Mumbai are not uniform resulting in difficulties to Trade. They suggested that the format of Bank Guarantee should be uniform in all the Customs formations in Mumbai.

The Chief Commissioner assured the members that the format of Bank Guarantee would be standardized/finalized by a Committee consisting of Shri Ajay Dixit, Additional Commissioner(Group-7), NCH, Mumbai, Shri P.K.Sinha, Additional Commissioner, JNP and Shri Rajendra Singh, Joint Commissioner(CCO), NCH, Mumbai by 15th April, 2005 and the same would be placed in Custom House Website. 
(Action: Shri Ajay Dixit (ADC), NCH, Shri P.K.Sinha(ADC, JNP, Shri Rajendra Singh, JC,CCO, NCH)

5. One Member raised the point regarding non-communication from either DYCC or the Group in cases where Test Report was pending from DYCC due to the inability of DYCC to conduct certain analysis. The Chief Commissioner directed that in cases where the DYCC is not able to conduct certain analysis, they must inform the concerned Group immediately. Thereafter, the concerned Group shall obtain the permission of the Commissioner to send the sample for test to other Customs Approved Labs in Mumbai.
(Action: CC (Import), NCH, Mumbai, Nhava Sheva)

6. As Shri Rajiv Gupta was not present, the Agenda points forwarded by him could not be taken up for discussion.

7. Thereafter, agenda points forwarded by BCHAA were taken up for discussion.

7.1 One Member raised the point that there was a delay in acceptance of Customs duty by the State Bank of India (SBI) at J.N. Port. The SBI has curtailed the timings for acceptance of customs duty from 6.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. They suggested that one more Bank should be nominated for collection of duty. The Chief Commissioner informed that the matter was being taken up with the officials of the SBI, at the highest level. The Chief Commissioner further stated that he was informed that there was some problem in the Central Server of the Bank and hence, Manual Challans are to be made. This increase in Manual Work was contributing to delay. As regards suggestion for nominating another Bank for collection of duty, the Chief Commissioner stated that Members should send a proposal and the same would be recommended to the Board by the JNP Customs

7.2. A Member raised the issue of difficulties faced in filing of Bill of Entry pertaining to High Seas Sales. It was requested that Bills of Entry pertaining to high seas sales be permitted to be submitted on Prior Noting also under ICES system and the amendments of the name of the Consignee of the items be permitted at the time of assessment of Bill of Entry. The Chief Commissioner stated that the matter would be looked into and the system would be streamlined.
(Action: System Managers, NCH, Mumbai, & JNP)

7.3 One Member raised a point that the Examination of import consignments starts at 12.00 noon in many CFSs at Nhava Sheva, resulting in delay in clearance and therefore, requested that the same should be started early. The Chief Commissioner assured that concerned staff would be directed to start the examination of cargo early.

7.4 A Member requested that provision be made in EDI system at Air Cargo Customs for Floppy submission of Shipping Bill. The Chief Commissioner informed that facility of floppy submission of Shipping Bills exists in the EDI system, but it appears that same is not accepting the Shipping Bills. Chief Commissioner asked the Members to make full use of ICEGATE facility for filing of Shipping Bills and assured that their request for floppy submission of shipping bill would be looked into.
(Action:Commissioner, ACC, Sahar)

7.5 In regard to Agenda Point relating to non-functioning of the IVRS at the New Custom House, Mumbai, the Chief Commissioners stated that the Department has already initiated necessary steps and the matter has been taken up with the Director General, Systems, New Delhi.
(Action: System Manager, NCH, Mumbai)

7.6 A Member raised the point that in Import Module of EDI system, Trade Discount columns are not activated, therefore, CHA are not able to submit the correct information to Customs either through ICEGATE or through Service Centre. The Chief Commissioner stated that the matter would be taken up with the Director General Systems, New Delhi.
(Action: System Managers, NCH, Mumbai, & JNP)

7.7 A Member raised the point that the Minutes of the last Open House meeting were not placed on the website of Mumbai Custom House. It was informed by the Additional Commissioner of Customs, EDI, that the same have since been placed in the Website.

8. The Chief Commissioner of Customs thanked all the Members present.

9. The next Meeting will be held on 29.04.2005 at 15.30 hrs. The points sponsored for discussion for the next meeting should reach POSITIVELY by 15.04.2005 in the offices of the Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone– I, II and III Zone. Points received after the said date, will be taken up for discussion only in the next Open House meeting.

Sd/-
(Rajendra Singh)
Joint Commissioner of Customs
Chief Commissioner’s Office
Mumbai - I

Copy to:- 

The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone – II and III
All Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone – I, II and III
The Addl. Commissioner of Customs (E.D.I.), Mumbai Customs/ J.C.H./ A.C.C., for immediate display on the Website.
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