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

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS, MUMBAI ZONE-I HELD WITH top importers Of Mumbai Custom House on 25th March, 2003 AT 11..30 a.m. IN THE CONFERENCE HALL OF MUMBAI CUSTOMS HOUSE.

The meeting was held under Shri Subrata Basu, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone - I, with the top importers of Mumbai Custom House on 25th March, 2003 in the Conference Hall, 2nd flr., New Custom House, Ballard Estate, Mumbai.

The following officers were present:

1. Shri K.K. Agarwal, Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai Custom House.
2. Shri Shishir Kumar, Commissioner of Customs (Export Promotion), Mumbai Custom House.
3. Shri Ahmed Hussain, Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
4. Shri Deepak Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Customs, CCO, Mumbai Custom House.
5. Shri. Rakesh Kumar Sharma, Additional Commissioner of Customs (EDI), Mumbai Custom House.
6. Shri V.K. Verma, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Export Promotion), Mumbai Custom House.
7. Shri Hemant Bhat, Joint Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai Custom House.
8. Shri Rajendra Singh, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Export Promotion), Mumbai Custom House.
9. Ms. Arti Srinivas, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
10. Shri O.P. Khanduja, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
11. Shri.Chandrakant Valvi, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
12. Shri Sanjay Shrinet, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri R.D. More, Asstt. Commissioner of Customs, CCO, Mumbai Custom House.

2. A meeting of top importers of Mumbai Custom House namely Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, Liberty Oil Mills Limited, Supreme Petrochem Limited, Larsen & Toubro Limited, Hindustan Lever Limited, Castrol India Limited, Tata Power Company
one-I for 25th March, 2003 at 11.30 hrs. to sort out the problems faced by them.

However only four of the importers namely Liberty Oil Mills Limited, Larsen & Toubro Limited, Tata Power Company Limited, Supreme Petrochem Limited attended the meeting.

The officers who represented them were as under.

1. Liberty Oil Mills Limited
Shri Gyan Chordia, Company Secretary,

2. Larsen & Toubro Limited
Shri J.B. Desai, Sr. DGM,
Shri V. Venugopal, Asst. Manager,

3. Tata Power Company Limited
Shri Rajendran Nair, Sr. Officer

4. Supreme Petrochem Limited
Shri Devdas Chandra, Joint General Manager,

3. The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone-I, welcomed all the representatives of the Trade and the Officers to the meeting. While welcoming the representatives of the trade he stated that this is one of the rare opportunities when we will be discussing the problems with the importers directly as normally Customs interact with them through their Custom House Agents. He further stated that since they are The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone-I, welcomed all the representatives of the Trade and the Officers to the meeting. While welcoming the representatives of the trade he stated that this is one of the rare opportunities when we will be discussing the problems with the importers directly as normally Customs interact with them through their Custom House Agents. He further stated that since they are re gnment and from every tank in the vessel; that at present there are number of importers of edible oil namely IVP, VVF Ltd., Godrej, Hindustan Lever, State Trading Corporation and small refiners; that they have at present the largest processing country; on a query if any of the edible oil are lying for clearance in the bonded warehouse Shri Chordia stated that they are not bonding edible oil in Mumbai port while all the oil at present bonded as Nhava Sheva port involving duty Rs. 15 crores would be cleared by them in another 4 to 5 days time & nothing would be left in the bond for clearance at the end of the financial year; that for logistic reason about 40% of their import is at Mumbai port while remaining 60% is at JNPT; that on an average they are importing 4 to 5 vessels every month; that during last 3 year no demmurrage has been paid by them; that at present they are facing only one problem about the quantity of oil on which the duty is required to be paid by them i.e. whether the duty is required to be paid on quantity indicated in the B/L or Shore Tank Ullage report; that Nhava Sheva Customs has issued Public Notice indicating that the duty will be payable on the quantity indicated in Shore Tank Ullage Report instead of B/L quantity; that the Mumbai Custom House is still insisting on payment of duty on B/L quantity instead of quantity indicated in Shore Tank Ullage Survey report. He was advised to give a detail note on the issue to the Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House with copy Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone-I highlighting the practice followed by other Custom House alongwith a copy of the Public Notice issued by the Nhava Sheva Customs for his examination and clarification in the matter.

[ Action : The Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House ]

6. Shri J.B. Desai, Sr. Deputy General Manager of Larsen & Toubro Limited while appreciating the officers efforts in developing the Mumbai Custom House Website requested that the Website be updated on regular basis so that it continues to remain useful for the importers and the exporters. The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone-I requested the Trade to make suggestions as to how Mumbai Custom House Website could be made more useful to the Trade. Shri.Jting raw materials, paints, forgings, castings, alloy steel etc. mostly from European market namely Germany, Italy etc; that they are exporting certain capital goods to USA; that they are exporting under DEEC and they are not facing any problem in its logging; that the rate of duty on most of their imported items has gone down to 25% from 40% and that their imports is likely to increase by 30% in material tonnage and therefore the revenue will remain static; that at present they are in the process of executed a project in Tanzania at the cost of Rs. 900 crores, Kuwait National Petrol at the cost of Rs. 300 crores and Petro Chemical Plant at Chennai; that at present they are facing some of the problems, which are as under:
(i) Once B/E is filed, it takes about two full working days instead of couple of hours for getting the check list resulting in the delayed processing of bills of entry.
They were advised that since the number of items in their B/Es are many it would be better if they start availing the opportunity of filing the B/E on floppy as this would reduce the time taken in getting checklist. They were also advised to meet the Additional Commissioner of Customs incharge EDI to find solution to their problems.

[ Action : Larsen & Toubro Limited ]

(ii) Very often, once a week, EDI System goes off causing undue delay in clearance of goods.
The Additional Commissioner of Customs (EDI) informed that due to failure of the optical fibre cable connectivity system the EDI System at present works on Radio Link, in which interruption do takes place but the said interruption or failure is corrected within an hours times. However the said failure naturally leads to pendency of the B/E in the EDI. The Chief Commissioner of Customs stated that the failure of Radio Link be monitored on a regular basis and the efficiency of the persons providing service to the Radio Linkage be improved so that the interruption could be reduced.

[ Action : The Additional Commissioner of Customs (EDI),Mumbai Custom House ]

(iii) Once a commiissioner of Customs or Appraiser is absent or busy in Court cases, the B/E gets stuck up in his computer for the day as others cannot access the same, causing delay.
They were informed that on Monday, Tuesday & Friday the officers are required to attend the Tax Bench of the Bombay High Court, which has been specifically set up to decide old pending cases and therefore the problems of absence of officers occurs. However these officers after return from the Court, normally by 3.00 p.m., attends to the work and clear the B/Es by the end of the day. Shri Desai stated that in the process a day is lost particularly the Friday, in which case they get the delivery of the goods after the payment of the duty on Monday, thus two days are lost in the process. They were advised that as far as possible attempts should be made by them also to plan import in such way so that important B/Es get cleared in the System by thursday itself. The Chief Commissioner of Customs stated that Customs House should examine the possibility of payment of duty on Saturday so that the problem could be resolved.

[ Action : The Commissioner of Customs (General),Mumbai Custom House ]

(iv) At the docks every second day the system goes off in one location or other as a result of which the final B/E is not available and planned clearance are forcibly postponed to next day involving vehicle detention, crane, container detention charges etc.
The Additional Commissioner of Customs (EDI) stated that due to failure of the optical fibre cable connectivity system at present EDI System is functioning on Radio Link and therefore interruptions takes place, At present printer is available at three different locations in the Dock and attempt is being made to reduce the failure rate by increasing the efficiency of the persons looking after the maintenance of Radio Link System.
Shri Rajendran Nair, Sr. Officer of Tata Power Company Limited informed that in their organisation the failure rate is zero and therefore offered to provide input material to Mumbai could brought down to zero. He was advised to get in touch with Additional Commissioner of Customs (EDI) to workout the arrangements by which the efficiency could be improved.

[ Action : Tata Power Company Limited]

(v) Space certificate for private bonded houses should not be insisted upon. This was discussed and agreed in the customs advisory committee meeting in September, 2001, yet the space certificate is insisted upon causing undue delay in clearance of goods. The importers arrange imports to private bonded warehouse only when adequate space is available. This problem is more severe for multi-location organisations like L&T.
Prima facie their appears to be hardly any need to insist for the space certificate for private bonded warehouses. Shri O.P. Khanduja, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports) stated that the said space certificate is insisted upon as it is provided in the Bond Manual. It was therefore decided that Larsen & Toubro Limited should give a detail note on the issue to the Commissioner of Customs (Imports) with copy to Chief Commissioner of Customs for his examination and decision in the matter.
[ Action : Larsen & Toubro Limited and The Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House]

That the Dock examination staff were not asking for the production of original DEEC Books, however recently they have started the practice of insisting on production of original DEEC book. On query they stated no endorsement is made by them in the original DEEC book and hence the practice of insisting on original DEEC book by Dock staff be dispensed with. After detail deliberation it was decided that M/s Larsen & Toubro Limited should give a note to the Commissioner of Customs (Export Promotion) and the Commissioner of Customs (Imports) with copy to the Chief Commissioner of Customs so that issue could be examined and decided by them in a week's times.

[ Action : Larsen & Toubro Limited and The Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House]

7. Shri Rajendran Nair of Tata Power Company Limited
Importing LSHS oil for Trombay power generation, spares for turbine & boiler, equipments for Khopoli Power projects and many other items under Project Imports at Mumbai port; that in the last 2 months there had not been any imports as a result the revenue has gone down; that they are importing coal at Ratnagiri; that most of their imports are under Projects Imports, which are being finalised by the Custom House; that although Projects Imports have not been finalised but things are moving in right direction for finalisation. The Chief Commissioner of Customs stated that leading Projects Importers cases for e.g. Tata Power Company Limited, Seimens & BHEL etc. be finalised expeditiously and efforts should be made to achieve 50% satisfaction in another three months times. Shri Rajendran Nair further stated that at present only one issue is pending with the customs i.e. their request that flow meter reading of LSHS be accepted by customs as the foreign exchange remittance is based on this quantity. The Commissioner of Customs (Imports) stated that issue is at advance stage of consideration and decision shall be taken shortly.

8. Shri Devdas Chandra, Joint General Manager of Supreme Petrochem Limited stated that they are importing styrene monomer from BASF and LG at Mumbai port and at present they are the largest importers of the styrene monomer in Mumbai; on a query as to why imports are not being made at JNPT, he stated that in the past twice pipeline contamination have taken place at JNPT port and hence they have stopped their import at JNPT although costwise it works out to be cheeper. He further stated that he is not facing any problem with Customs.

9. The Chief Commissioner of Customs Mumbai Zone-I thanked all the Officers and Trade for their co-operation and active participation.

( Deepak Kumar )
Addl. Commissioner of Customs/CCO
New Custom House, Mumbai Zone-I.

Copy to:

Shri K.K. Agarwal, Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri Shishir Kumar, Commissioner of Customs (Export Promotion),
Shri Ahmed Hussain, Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri Deepak Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Customs, CCO, Mumbai Custom House.
Shri Rakesh Kumar Sharma, Additional Commissioner of Customs (EDI), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri V.K. Verma, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Export Promotion), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri Hemant Bhat, Joint Commissioner of Customs (General), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri Rajendra Singh, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Export Promotion), Mumbai Custom House.
Ms. Arti Srinivas, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri O.P. Khanduja, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri Chandrakant Valvi, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri Sanjay Shrinet, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Imports), Mumbai Custom House.
Shri R.D. More, Asstt. Commissioner of Customs, CCO, Mumbai Custom House.

Copy for information and wide circulation to :

Liberty Oil Mills Limited.
Larsen & Toubro Limited.
Tata Power Company Limited
Supreme Petrochem Limited.