OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (IMPORT)
NEW CUSTOM HOUSE, BALLARD ESTAE, MUMBAI- 400 001

MINUTES OF THE TRADE FACILITATION COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 07.12.2006 UNDER THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF SHRI A.K. PRASAD, COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (IMPORT)

1. 1. A meeting of the Trade Facilitation Committee was held on 07.12.2006 under the Chairmanship of Shri. A. K. Prasad, Commissioner of Customs (Import). The following Members of the Trade, Port and Bank Officials attended the meeting: -

2. The following officers attended the meeting on behalf of the Department.

3) The Commissioner welcomed all the members present and confirmed the minutes of the earlier meeting held on 09.11.2006.

4) With regard to Test report Commissioner informed that the details of the Test Report have been incorporated in the Custom House Website. Details in respect of the date of drawal of sample by Docks Staff and also the date of receiving of the text report by group can also be seen on Website. Commissioner advised the members of BCHAA to approach Commissioner (Export) for similar facility, in respect of Export Cargo.

5) Regarding refunds of revenue deposit by the Import Department the Asstt. Commissioner of Import Noting informed that the Refund is sanctioned to M/s Forbes Sea Consortium India P.Ltd. FOR Rs.75,000/- to M/s Act Shpg. P. Ltd for Rs. 6000/- M/s PIL Mumbai P. Ltd. for Rs.15,000/- & M/s Intra Trade P. Ltd for 15,000/- & M/s Intra Trade P.Ltd. for Rs 42,000/-.
As per Commissioner (Import)’s direction, Out Turn Report for the remaining cases has been called for from Mumbai Port Trust. The Commissioner requested the representatives of MbPT to take a copy of letter from Asstt. Commissioner Import Noting and arrange to forward out turn report regularly. He further directed Asst. Commissioner Import Noting to ensure speedy disposal of Refund cheque after sanction of refund.
Commissioner informed the trade that all the pending refund cases have been loaded on the Website. He requested the trade to check the website and get their claims registered on website. He directed CHA Association to check if all details are correct and monitor it.
Commissioner observed that there is good progress in disposal of refund claims. However there still is a need to work harder to reduce the total pendency of 760 cases.

6) Regarding dwell time Commissioner informed that an inter ministerial Group has been set up at Delhi having members from Ministry of Commerce, Shipping & Finance, which is carrying out a study in this regard. Department is coordinating with them. Commissioner said that that he will keep the trade informed about the progress made in this respect.

7) Regarding issue related to out of charge of bulk cargo and the gate module Commissioner informed that implementation has been postponed because D.G.(Systems) has not yet developed software for Gate Modules.

8) Regarding the introduction of new centralized CHA Directory system, Commissioner informed that PAN BASED CHA directory has already been implemented at patpargang ICD and is shortly likely to be implemented at New Custom House Mumbai by second week of December.

9) In respect of the status information of Bills of Entry through SMS facility Commissioner informed that the tender was floated in order to start SMS facility so that any importer/CHA can know the present status of the B/E available in ICEGATE. M/s Corner shop Mumbai, is the successful bidder on opening the sealed tenders. Proposal requesting for administrative approval and financial sanction for awarding contract to the successful bidder M/s Corner Shop, Mumbai has been sent to the DG/systems.

10) The issue of assessment of Bills of Entry related to “Job work” has already been decided. All Bills of Entry pertaining to “Job work” are assessed in Group VII of Export Commissionerate. Public Notice No 54/06 dated 09.11.06 has been issued in this regard.

11) In the last meeting M/s Indian National Shipowners’ Association (INSA) vide their letter dtd. 13th Sep 06. had raised the issue regarding refund of IGM Revenue deposit of M/s S.K.S. (Ship) Ltd. The Commissioner informed that letter was written to M/s S.K.S. (Ship) LTD .seeking further information in this regard. However no response is received from them so far. Hence the department is not sure if the case relates to Mumbai Custom House or Nhava Sheva. He requested the members of trade present in the meeting to pass on the message to INSA.

12) Regarding the issue of MERCHANT OVER TIME discussed in the last meeting Commissioner informed that no further information is received from Shri Jayant Lapsia in this regard .He asked member of CHA Association to inform Shri Jayant Lapsia about it.

13) Regarding OUT OF CHARGE: Commissioner said that it was clarified during the last meeting that out of charge of bulk cargo would be given by the group assessing the Bill of Entry or the Docks. The copies of the minutes are circulated to the concerned groups and they have confirmed that out of charge is given by the concerned group.

14) With regard to out of charge of Ex-Bond Bills of Entry Asst Commissioner informed that the timing of the officers has been arranged so that at least one officer is always available for giving out of charge.

New Agenda Points

Though there was no new Agenda point for the meeting, number of new issues were discussed during the meeting.

(15) Shri. Naval Mehta of BCHAA raised the issue of Less Charge being issued for old cases pertaining to 1992-93. He stated that the groups have issued less charge demands for cases as old as 1992-93 which are time barred as per section 28 of Customs Act, 1962. Commissioner informed that while clearing the pendency they have come across some old cases of IAD objection. In an attempt to clear these old cases data is retrieved from LAN and notices have been sent to the importers and CHAs Commissioner clarified that it is just a call to the importers to come forward and explain these cases so that these objections can be settled in a mutually acceptable manner.

Shri. Naval Mehta however, objected that in the process the CHAs are unnecessarily penalised. The department has stopped the noting of their document even where the objection pertains to other parties. Commissioner justified that CHAs are held responsible under Section 174(3) of Customs Act. However, he said that if in over enthusiasm to clear pendency if B/Es are not noted he would look into it. He asked Shri. Mehta to give him details of such cases. Commissioner however requested the CHAs that in case of small amount they should not object, and pay the amount. Whereas in case of bigger amount they should help the department to locate the importers. He said that we should have mutual understanding to clear pendency.

(16) Shri. Naval Mehta also raised the issue of refund of cash security Deposit in Project Imports. He said that the principle of unjust enrichment is unnecessarily applied to such cases. Commissioner clarified that unjust enrichment is not applicable in such cases and that he will inform the Asstt. Commissioner (Contract Cell) accordingly.

(17) Shri. Hasmukh Zaveri of AIMO raised the issue of pending refund claim since 1994 in Group IIA. He gave the details of this case to Commissioner and Commissioner promised to look into it.
Shri. Zaveri said that despite the clear cut guidelines to sanction refund within 3 months a number of refund cases are pending for a long time for one or the other reason. Commissioner agreed that refund is an area of concern but due to lack of proper guidelines many refund cases are pending. He said that the department is working on a uniform mechanism. The issue was raised before Member (L & J) during his last visit to Mumbai. Member has promised that with in 15 days Board will come up with clear cut instructions on refund. Commissioner further asked. Shri. Zaveri if his claim is registered on website. He asked him to if get it registered if it is not on website.
Commissioner clarified that the idea to put all the refund cases on website is to have accountability for the dealing staff and keep the seniors informed. He therefore, requested the Trade to get all their refund claims registered on website.

(18) Shri. Manik Nasta of AILBIEA raised the issue of out of charge in Oil Unit. He said that there is only one A.O. in Oil Unit Shri. Mahesh Keny who was till now was giving out of charge for the B/E assessed by him. However, now he is having apprehensions about it. He therefore requested that Superintendent of Oil Unit should be allowed to give out of charge. However, Commissioner said that in this situation out of charge should more appropriately be given by Docks A.O. He directed to inform Asstt. Commissioner (Docks) about it.

(19) Shri. Manik Nasta complained that this consignment of currency note paper of Govt. of India was with held by A.O. Shri,. Madhuranjan Das for 48 hours for the reason that he was not aware about the policy provision in this regard. Commissioner promised to look into it.

(20) Shri Hasmukh Zaveri raised the query if the B/E can be filed in EDI in case where the licence is already expired though the Bill of Lading is prior to expiry of licence. After consulting NIC staff Shri. U. M. Sakpal and Asstt. Commissioner of EDI, Shri. Ajay Kumar, the Commissioner informed him that there is no provision for filing such B/E in the system. Such B/E can be allowed to be filed manually.

(21) Shri. Zaveri raised the question that why yardstick of unjust enrichment is indiscriminately applied to all cases of refund. Commissioner clarified that Section 27 of Custom Act clearly specifies it. However, he admitted that it is a grey area. He said that the department is working on a standardized uniform procedure with chartered Accountants Association so that all over India a uniform procedure can be worked out.

(22) It was decided that next meeting would be held on 04.01.2007 at 5:00 pm.

(23) The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair.

( NASIM ARSHI )
JOINT COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (IMPORT)
(APPRAISING GENERAL)
MUMBAI.