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

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 INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS ON 31st January, 2007 AT 3.30 P.M. IN THE CONFERENCE HALL OF THE MUMBAI CUSTOM HOUSE.

1. The Open House Meeting for the month of January, 2007 was held under the Chairmanship of Shri K. M. Tiwari, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone I, Shri N. Sasidharan, Chief Commissioner of Customs. Mumbai Zone-II on 31.01.2007 at 3.30 P. M. in the in the Conference Hall, New Custom House, Ballard Estate, Mumbai - 400 001. Shri R. K. Mahajan, Commissioner of Customs (General), New Custom House, Mumbai and Shri Sanjeev Bihari, Commissioner of Customs (Export) JNCH were also present during the meeting.-

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

i) BCHAA (Bombay Custom House Agent’s Association).
Shri Naval Mehta, Shri R. Radhakrishnan, Shri Omprakash Agrawal,
Shri Sorab P. Engineer, Shri Rajiv Desai and Shri Kiran Rambhia.

ii) AIIEA (All India Importers & Exporters Association)
Shri Mohan Nihalani.

iii) Indian Merchant Chamber
Shri K. M. Doshi

iv) MACCIA
Shri Ashish Pednekar

v) ASSOCHAM
Shri George Joseph

vi) Individuals / Member of the Trade
Shri B. R. Rao and Shri Rajiv Gupta

vii) Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council, Mumbai
Shri A. Ravindra Kumar (Deputy Director)

3. At the outset of the meeting, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Zone – I welcomed all the members of the House, to the first Open House of the New Year 2007.

4. Shri K. M. Tiwari, Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I introduced Shri N. Sasidharan, who has taken over the charge of Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – II on 22.01.07 to the members of the House. Further, Shri R. K. Mahajan, Commissioner of Customs (General), New Custom House, Shri Sanjeev Bihari, Commissioner of Customs (Export), JNCH, who were present in the meeting were introduced to the members of the Trade. The Chief Commissioner informed the members of the Open House that Shri K. K. Sharma, Commissioner of Customs (I), JNCH, Shri Shyam Sunder, Commissioner of Customs (Adjn.) and Shri W. L. Hangshing, Commissioner of Customs (Appeal), Mumbai – I & II, have recently joined the Mumbai Customs and have assumed their respective charges.

5. Shri R. Radhakrishnan on behalf of BCHAA, Shri Mohan Nihalani on behalf of AIIEA, Shri Ashish Pednekar on behalf MACCIA and the other members of the House, greeted and welcomed the Chief Commissioner Zone – II Shri N. Sasidharan and other officers.

6. Shri N. Sasidharan, Commissioner of Customs Zone-II thanked the members of the House for their warm welcome and stated he would endeavour his best to meet the expectations of the Trade and Industry. The other incumbent officers too expressed their gratitude to the members of the House.

7. Thereafter, the discussions on the action taken on the minutes of the previous Meeting were initiated.

8. Regarding point No. 6 of the Minutes of the previous meeting i.e. “Refund of Revenue Deposits” Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I informed that Refunds have been sanctioned in 04 cases earlier and about 39 claims have been settled and 27 are under process for pre audit/NPC. In 90 cases MbPT out-turn reports have been received recently and they are also under process.
In many cases, the Shipping Lines have to submit the requisite documents including IGM numbers. Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I called for co- operation from the Shipping Lines, in submission of the requisite documents. He further assured that he will take up the matter again with the Ministry in doing away with the requirement of Revenue Deposits, as per deliberations of the Chief Commissioner’s Conference in June 2006.

9. With respect to point No. 7 of the previous minutes i.e. frequent failure of ICEGATE, Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I enquired from the Members about the current status of functioning of ICEGATE. It was reported by the Trade that by and large the functioning of ICEGATE at JNCH was satisfactory, but the situation in Air Cargo Complex was still erratic.
The Trade was informed that, meetings have been held by Member CBEC Shri A. K. Raha and D.G. (Systems) with the officers of the Department and Trade on 19.12.2006 and on 18.01.2007 again. It was outlined by DG Systems that the present system is going to be replaced by a more modern and reliable system and work is in progress. With the inception of the new system the problems faced at present shall be over. However, the matter will be taken up again with DG System’s to remove the snags in the functioning of ICEGATE in Mumbai.

10. With respect to point No. 8 of the previous minutes i.e. “Verification of export documents by the Customs”, Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – II informed the House that the procedure for verification will be simplified and time required for verification of documents, shall be reduced.

11. Regarding point No. 9 of the previous minutes i.e. “Renewal of CHA licences”, Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I informed the House that renewal has been accomplished in 320 cases out of 322 applications for renewal, and in the remaining 2 cases, renewal is pending as the necessary documents required for renewal have not been received. Thus, Chief Commissioner of Customs zone – I observed that since the major task has already been accomplished the matter shall be treated as closed.

12. Regarding point No. 12 of the previous minutes i.e. the agenda point sponsored by M/s. Amritlal Chemaux Pvt. Ltd., regarding “ delay in verification of export documents”, Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone-I informed that reports for all the 21 Shipping Bills pertaining to M/s Amritlal Chemaux Pvt. Ltd., have been forwarded to Central Excise, Raigad.
Regarding delay in verification of the export documents, Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – II stated that though no time frame can be fixed, however efforts will be made to simplify the procedure and expedite the verification process.
It was also felt that issues relating to individual Assessee may be taken up first with the concerned Commissioners for early resolution of the problems.

13. With respect to point No. 13 of the previous minutes i.e. “Issue of the signing of the Import documents by the shed officers”, Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I informed that necessary Public Notices have been issued in this regard and the problems have already been sorted out in the meeting between the Commissioner of Customs (Import), New Custom House and the Trade Associations.
The members too agreed that the problems have been sorted out already. Hence this point is treated as closed.

14. Thus, the minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as approved, by the House.

15. The Agenda points for the instant meeting were taken up next for discussion.

16. With respect to the point sponsored by Shri Rajiv Gupta, Advisor, Legal Compliances M/s Hildose, Mumbai, regarding “Anomaly in Test report of Shipping Bill No. 7022295 dated 28.09.2006”, the Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I informed that the matter has been resolved with the Test Report, with which Shri Rajiv Gupta also agreed. The point was treated as closed.

17. Regarding the point sponsored by M/s Srinivas Chemical Industries Pvt. Ltd. viz. “Conversion from Advance Licence Notification No. 43/2002 to another Notification No. 32/97 for job work scheme”, Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I informed that the matter is being examined by JNCH.
However, the representative of the said firm was asked to meet Commissioner of Customs (Export) JNCH, and also bring up the matter in the periodical meetings between DGFT & Customs. Shri Sanjeev Bihari, Commissioner of Customs (Export) JNCH, asked the representative to meet him separately in this connection.

18. Regarding the points sponsored by the SRTEPC, Mumbai, viz.
(i) Customs verification regarding export shipment: Chief Commissioner of Customs, Zone – II assured that the procedures will be simplified and the time for verification shall be reduced.
(ii) Release of Customs Test Report: Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I informed that the matter would be taken up with officers of DGFT during the monthly co-ordination meetings, so that they can directly ask Customs for Test Reports, which would be provided as and when sought for, on a case to case basis. The representative of SRTEPC was asked to attend the aforesaid meetings to get their problems resolved.
(iii) Cheque book facility stopped by SBI, JNPT: Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – II asked the Members to take up the matter directly with the higher authorities of the Bank. He assured that the Customs would render necessary help in the matter, if required.
iv) To allow manual operations when EDI system is modified to incorporate Policy Changes:Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I informed that such a change-over from EDI to Manual can not be allowed and a General Permission can not be given. However, in cases of modifications of DEPB / Drawback/Customs Duty rates to be incorporated in the EDI System or in cases of System failure, Manual filing of Bills of Entry and Shipping Bills is allowed on case to case basis.

19. With respect to the Agenda Points raised for BCHAA, viz.
(i) Escorting of packages in respect of cargo to 100% EOU at Mumbai, sealed by Customs: Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I stated that, the issue has already been resolved earlier in the Open House Meeting held on 19.09.2005, and requested the concerned member take up the matter with respective Commissioners if the problems persisted yet.
(ii) Delay in receipt of RA/TRA messages from New Custom House to various locations: Chief Commissioner of Customs Zone – I informed the House, that the matter shall be taken up with System Manager and Addl. Commissioner/EDI will be directed to look into the matter.

21. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

22. The next Open House Meeting will be held on 07.03.2007. The points sponsored for discussion for the next meeting should reach POSITIVELY by 23.02.2007 in the offices of the Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone I, II and III, so that the issues can be taken up effectively.

(J. S. CHANDRASHEKAR)
ADDL. COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS,
CHIEF COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE,
MUMBAI ZONE – I.

Copy to:
1. The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai Zone II and III.
2. All Commissioners of Customs, Mumbai Zone I, II and III,
3. The Addl./Joint Commissioners of Customs (E. D. I.), Mumbai Customs/Jawahar Custom House, Nhava Sheva/Air Cargo Complex, Mumbai – for immediate uploading of the Minutes on the website.
4. Shri S. S. Sandhu, Zonal Jt. D. G. F. T., Mumbai.
5. Shri Y.G. Parande, D.G. Systems.
5. Shri Bani Bhattacharya, Additional Director (Systems), NCH, 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