MINUTES OF THE OPEN HOUSE MEETING OF THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, MUMBAI ZONE-I and II HELD WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE TRADE AND INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION ON 02.06.2003 AT 3.30p.m. IN THE CONFERENCE HALL OF MUMBAI CUSTOMS HOUSE.

The following officers were present from the department:

1. Shri K.K. Agarwal, Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai Custom House.
2. Shri Y.G. Parande, Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Air Cargo Complex.
3. Shri Ahmed Hussain, Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
4. Shri Deepak Kumar, Commissioner of Customs, CCO, Mumbai Custom House.
5. Shri C.M. Sharma, Additional Commissioner of Customs, CCO, Mumbai Custom House.
6. Shri Shrikant Patil, Additional Commissioner of Customs
7. Shri Hemant Bhat, Joint Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai Custom House.
8. Shri O.P. Khanduja, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
9. Shri Sanjay Lunia, Jt. DGFT, Mumbai.
10. Shri Jhamman Singh, Asstt. Commissioner of Customs, CCO, Mumbai.
11. Shri Sidney D’Silva, Appraiser (EDI), Mumbai Custom House.

The following representatives of the Trade & Industries Associations and the Bombay Custom House Agents Association attended the meeting:

1. AIIEA (All India Importers & Exporters Association)
Shri Mohan Nihalan
Shri Nirav B. Raval

2. BCHAA (Bombay Custom House Agent’s Association)
Shri Mark S. Fernandes
Shri Sorab P. Engneer
Shri Nimish Desai
Shri Naval H. Mehta
Shri Omprakash Agrawal

3. TATA GROUP
Shri M. Rajendran Nair

4. Dyestuff Manufacturer’s Association of India
Shri S. Srinivasa

5. Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce & Industries
Shri H.S. Birdi

6. IMC (Indian Merchant Chambers)
Shri Virendra Parekh

7. ASSOCHAM
Shri George Joseph

8. All India Manufacturer’s Organisation
Shri Babulal B. Todi
Shri Anoop Makwana

9. Bombay Chambers of Commerce & Industries
Shri Pravin Kanakia.

10. SRTEPC (Synthetic & Rayon Textile Processing Committee)
Shri A. Ravindra Kumar

11. KPMG
Nirab Shah

12. Individual Member of the Public
Shri Rajiv Gupta

The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone – I, welcomed all the members of the Trade, Industry and CHAs Association and the officers to the meeting.

2. The minutes of the meeting earlier held on 05.05.2003 were read out. On the confirmation of minutes the representatives of the All India Importers & Exporters Association stated that they have submitted a letter giving their comments on the points contained in para 1(a) and para 5 of the minutes of the Open House meeting held on 05.05.2003. In continuation of the same they read out the comments made by them on para 1(a) of the minutes of Open House meeting held on 05th May, 2003.

The Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House stated that there are 13 such cases were logging of DEEC Book has been done by an officers, who were not authorised to do so and therefore these are disputed logging cases. The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Custom House drew attention to the Ministry’s Order No. 605/21/2003/DBK dated 22nd August, 2003 where in it has been indicated that all pending logging cases be referred to the Committee comprising of the Commissioner of Customs (EP) Mumbai Custom House, Jt. DGFT Mumbai, Joint Commissioner of Customs (EP) Mumbai Custom House. These disputed logging cases are to be treated as pending logging cases and therefore Association is requested to advise the concerned members to press the points before the Committee. He further stated that Open House meeting normally does not take up individual cases for discussion.

As regards the comments of All India Importers & Exporters Association on para 5 of the minutes of the Open House meeting held on 05.05.2003. the Chief Commissioner of Customs observed that institution is more important than an individual.

I. Points by Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce & Industries.
(a) Many a times Bills of Entry are kept pending by issuing query memos for routine causes like previous B/E, Literature etc. The B/E is kept pending for whole day and towards the evening query memos are issued. This calls for proper monitoring at least on sampling basis so as to improve in the time taken for processing.

Secondly when the query is issued it is to be confirmed by AC, DC in-charge. Some time this take half a day for confirmation. Further when it is replied it goes to AC/DC and then to appraiser. It is suggested that such replies should go directly to the appraiser.

It was stated that looking to the number of query memos, which are being issued in the EDI System, it has been decided that its monitoring should be done on regular basis by Joint Commissioner /Addl. Commissioner in-charge of the concerned Groups. It was further stated that efforts would be made to reduce the number of queries and one such steps would be to raise only those queries without which assessment cannot be made; and rest of the verification could be left to Dock Appraiser. Further the Department would examine if reply received from the importers can be sent directly to the appraisers instead of to

Asstt. Commissioner. During deliberations a point was raised that the importer should have option to give its reply in the Service Center/C.M.C. for feeding in the EDI directly without showing it to concerned AC/appraiser. It was agreed that those importers/CHAs who want to file the reply directly in the service Center/C.M.C. for feeding in the EDI System, the option should be available to them. Others who want to follow the present system of filing the reply with the concerned Group AC may continue to do so. The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone-II explained that there could be various types of query momos like answerable queries, where the importer and CHA can give its reply in the Service Centre/CMC or to Group AC where as there are certain query momos like production of literature or other documents in such cases literature/documents has necessarily to be submitted to Group AC. Similarly there could be query memo where experts presence may be required to explain certain thing to the assessing officers, which would affect assessment, in such cases also experts have to be brought to the AC.

[ Action : All Commissioners of Customs]

(b) It was suggested in previous meeting that Advance Licences issued by DGFT should be electronically transferred to Custom Houses so that the process of registration is minimised. In the same strain it is suggested that RA. (Release Advices) from one Custom House to another should be sent electronically indicating the amount to be utilised and balance available against the Licence. This will simplify the cumbersome procedure of taking RA manually, sealing the same and bringing it physically to custom house where clearance is being effected. Then it further requires opening of RA and registering the same on EDI system and also manually which takes half a day minimum.

It was explained that at present the Customs and DGFT are not electronically connected and therefore it is not possible to transfer advance license issued by the DGFT to Customs. To expedite the connectivity, it was decided that DC(EDI) would interact with the Zonal DGFT so that connectivity could be established and this should be done on top most priority.

The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone-II explained that in the E-dash system, Customs and Central Excise formation are inter-connected and therefore it could be possible to transfer RA from one Customs House to another electronically.

The representatives of the Bombay Custom House Agent’s Association stated that RA formalities between New Custom House, Air Cargo Complex & Jawahar Custom House could be dispensed with due to physical proximity of this area. They were requested to submit a letter from their association so that their request could be examined. In the meeting itself the BCHAA submitted their letter dated 05.08.2002 addressed to the Commissioner of Customs, Air Cargo Complex, Sahar, on the question of dispensing of RA formalities between 3 Custom Houses in Mumbai. It was further agreed that we will start the transfer of release advice on E-dash system between New Custom House, Air Cargo Complex and Jawahar Custom House on experimental basis in addition to existing communication as usual. It was further agreed to that at present there are 4 officers involved in issue of release advices namely a ministerial hand, E.O., A.O., and A.C. Instead of that we will consider reduction of one stage of E.O./A.O.

[ Action : The Commissioner of Customs (General)/
Addl. Commisisoner of Customs &
Dy. Commisisoner of Customs (EDI), Mumbai Custom House ]

(c) Anti Dumping Duty should be collected on EDI B/E. Sine time for one item in a B/E if anti dumping is applicable, manual B/Es are prepared for payment of anti dumping duty.

It was stated that a Public Notice has been issued by the Mumbai Custom House on 23.05.2003 permitting filing of B/E on EDI system, even in cases where anti dumping duty is involved and the said Public Notice has been made operational in actual working only today. It was further stated that old anti dumping notifications is yet to be fed in the EDI system. It is only question of time when the Custom House would be a position to feed all the past anti dumping notifications in the system. The Bombay Custom House Agent’s Association were specifically requested that in case they come to know that any particular anti dumping notification has not been fed in the EDI system, they should immediately inform the same to the Additional Commissioner(EDI), Mumbai Custom House for necessary action.

[ Action : The Commissioner of Customs (General),
Addl. Commisisoner of Customs (EDI), Mumbai Custom House &
The Bombay Custom House Agents Association ]

II. In addition to the above points received for discussion, the following points were raised:
(a) Rectification of Shipping Bills after actual export :
It was stated that at present there is no system of rectification of Shipping Bills after actual export in the EDI system. At least obvious mistakes be allowed correction.

It was explained that at present shipment certificate is issued by the Commissionerate in cases where obvious mistake does not amount to change of material data in the EDI system.

[ Action : All Commissioners of Customs]