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Open
House
Meeting held on 09-2004
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| OFFICE
OF THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS
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 INSUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS ON 20th September, 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
the Chairmanship of Shri K.M. Tiwari, Chief Commissioner of Custom, Mumbai
Zone – I on 20.09.2004 at 3.30 P.M. in the Conference Hall, 2nd
floor, New Custom House, Ballard Estate, Mumbai – 1. The following
senior officers of the department attended the meeting.
The
following officers were present: 1. Shri D.S. Sra, Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai - I 2) BCHAA (Bombay Custom House Agent’s
Association). 3) Indian Merchants’ Chamber 4) Samunder Shipping 5) B.C.C.I. (The Bombay Chamber of
Commerce & Industries) 6) All India Manufactures Organisation
(AIMO) 7) SRTEPC 8) MCCI (Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce
& Industries) 9) Federation of Indian Exporters’
Organisation. (FIEO) 10) Association of Importers &
Exporters of Man made Textiles. 11) Individual / Member of the Public 12) Forbes Sea Construction Co. Pvt.
Ltd. 13) The Dyestuff Manufacturer’s
Association of India 2. The Open House meeting started with the Chief Commissioner welcoming all the members. Shri Gulam Mohd, representative of the Association of Importers & Exporters of Man made Textiles appreciated the promptness on the part of Chief Commissioner’s Office in issuing the Minutes of the last Open House Meeting and posting the same on the Website within 72 hours of the meeting. 3. Shri Mark Farnandes, representative of BCHAA pointed out
that whenever there is EDI link failure, Mumbai Customs does not allow
Manual Registration for examination and manual out-of-charge of imported
cargo resulting in delay in clearance of goods. He reported that Jawahar
Customs allows manual registration and out of charge in case of EDI link
failure. The Chief Commissioner assured the members that EDI related problems
would be taken up on priority and a solution would be brought out to avoid
such frequent breakdowns. 4. Thereafter, the Agenda points were taken up for discussion. It was noticed that MANSA had sponsored Agenda Points for the meeting but nobody was present in the meeting. The Chief Commissioner expressed his dissatisfaction and anguish over the absence of MANSA’s representative in the Open House Meeting. The Chief Commissioner categorically emphasized the importance of the Open House Meeting which provides a common platform for all concerned members of the trade & industry, service providers, port authorities to discuss various problems and sort out the bottlenecks in trade transaction. In the absence of such an important member like MANSA, no fruitful discussion can take place on a number of issues. It was also pointed out that representatives of MANSA are not attending Fortnightly Permanent Trade Facilitation/Watchdog Committee Meetings held under the chairmanship of various Commissioners of Customs and therefore, it is not possible to resolve the issues pertaining to MANSA at the Commissioners level. The Chief Commissioner directed the Joint Commissioner, Chief Commissioner’s Office to write to MANSA to attend these meetings without fail in future. 4.1 Although representatives of MANSA were not present, the
Agenda Points forwarded by them were taken up for discussion. In regard
to the first point regarding refund of revenue deposits made along-with
IGMs by the steamer Agents, the Chief Commissioner of Customs informed
that out of total 273 refund claims, 124 claims have been finalised and
refund has been sanctioned. It was requested that Steamer Agents whose
refund claims have been sanctioned, should collect their cheques from
the Cash Section of the Custom House. Remaining 149 cases are pending
for the want of IGM closure. The Commissioner of Customs (Import) pointed
out that in a number of cases, complete details of relevant IGMs are not
indicated resulting in difficulties for the Department to correlate the
refund claim with the relevant IGM and which delays finalization of claims.
He therefore, requested that Steamer Agents should ensure that refund
claims filed by them, contain all the relevant details of IGMs. The Chief
Commissioner directed that IGMs pertaining to the pending 149 refund claims,
should be taken up for finalization immediately and thereafter, pending
refund claims should be disposed on priority. 4.2 In regard to second Agenda Points relating lighterage operations as forwarded by MANSA, the issue could not be discussed in detail in the absence of representative from MANSA. The Commissioner of Customs (Import) informed that a draft Public Notice has been circulated to MANSA and SCI and comments of SCI on the draft Public Notice, has been received. The Chief Commissioner directed Commissioner of Customs(Import) and Commissioner of Customs(General) to discuss the matter with all the stake holders i.e. MANSA, SCI, BPCL/HPCL etc. to finalise the Public Notice by 15.10.2004. 5. Thereafter, the agenda points represented by Shri Rajeev Gupta were taken up for discussion. 5.1 In regard to first Agenda Point relating to levy of Education Cess, the Chief Commissioner of Customs informed that the matter had been discussed in the previous Open House meetings, wherein it was clarified that the Custom House is levying Education Cess as per the formula prescribed by the Ministry. 5.2 In regard to release of Bank Guarantees furnished by
M/s. J.D. Exports against Advance Licences for deemed export, the Chief
Commissioner informed that two Bank Guarantees reported to be pending
during the earlier meetings of the Open House, have since been cancelled
on receipt of EODCs from the DGFT’s office. Shri Rajiv Gupta reported
that one more Bank Guarantees of M/s. J. D. Exports had been submitted
15 days back for cancellation and the same is pending. The Chief Commissioner
directed Joint Commissioner of Customs (EP) to look into the matter for
expeditious action. 5.3. As regards Agenda Point relating to delay in issuance of Orders-in-Original after personal hearings, the Chief Commissioner clarified that as per the Board’s instructions, Adjudicating Authorities have to issue Orders-in-Original within 15 days of personal hearing. The Chief Commissioner directed that instructions of the Board in this regard should be re-iterated and circulated to all concerned for compliance. Shri Rajeev Gupta pointed out a specific case bearing File No S/40 – EPCG – 104/2000 ACC, where order has not been issued after completion of hearing few months back. As the matter pertains to Air Cargo Complex, the Chief Commissioner directed Shri Rajiv Gupta to approach Commissioner of Customs (Air Cargo) to sort out the problem. 6. Thereafter the point represented by AII&EA were taken up for discussion in the meeting. 6.1 Shri Mohan Nihlani requested that the exporters should
be intimated on finalization of their drawback claims. It was informed
that the matter was discussed in the last meeting of the Trade Facilitation
Committee held under the chairmanship of the Commissioner of Customs (EP),
New Custom House, Mumbai, wherein it was decided that in cases where amount
of drawback has been reduced by the Department, an intimation letter would
be sent to exporter indicating the reasons for reducing the amount. The
Chief Commissioner stated that it would not be possible to intimate the
exporters in each case where amounts of DBK as claimed by the exporters,
have been sanctioned as such as the same may not be necessary and would
involved avoidable scriptory work. In any case the exporters get an intimation
about sanction of drawback amount from the Bank. However, Chief Commissioner
mentioned that in cases where drawback claim amount is reduced by the
Department, the exporter should be intimated of this fact along-with the
reasons for reducing the claim. 6.2 In regard to Agenda Point relating to delay in release
of Bank Guarantees, the Chief Commissioner directed Commissioner of Customs(EP)
to issue necessary instructions for cancellation of BGs within 7 days
of receipt of EODCs. However, in cases where relevant Bills of Entry were
provisionally assessed and pending finalization, the BGs should be cancelled
after the assessment is finalised. 6.4 As regards the working of the PBX system installed in
Custom House, the Chief Commissioner directed the Commissioner of Customs
(General) to look into the matter and issue necessary directions to all
concerned to improve the facilities. He also agreed to the suggestion
of one member to compile a small directory containing the Telephone number
of the Senior Officers for use of the members of Trade and Industry. 7. Finally, the points raised by the representative of MCCI were taken up for discussion. 7.1. In regard to request for publishing the details of importers/exporters in the Daily List as published by Jawahar Custom House, the Chief Commissioner stated that the matter is sub-judice in the Hon’ble High Court, Mumbai and hence this issue cannot be discussed in this forum. 7.2. As regards congestion at JNPT / NSICT, the Chief Commissioner stated that Chief Commissioner, Zone – II, is fully aware of the situation. Shri Mark Farnandes informed that the issue was discussed in the SCOPE-shipping meeting held under the chairmanship of the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, on 15th and 16th of September, 2004 at Mumbai, wherein it was agreed that Shipping Lines handling more than 5,000 TEUs, would be allowed to move the container from Nhava Sheva to other ports/ICDs/CFSs by road without executing any Bank Guarantee with the Customs. It was also decided to set up a Task Force to examine the problem and suggest steps to wipe out the problem of congestion at Nhava Sheva for facilitating the smooth flow of Trade. 8. The Chief Commissioner thanked all the members present. 9. The next meeting will be held on 15.10.2004 (15th October) at 15.30 hrs. The points sponsored for discussion for the next meeting should reach POSITIVELY by 08.10.2004 (8th October, 2004) in the offices of the Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone – I, II and III Zone. (Rajendra Singh)
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