The Customs have abolished the Green Channel facility for export consignments and identified Dubai, Singapore, Sharjah, Hong Kong and Colombo as sensitive destinations.
There will be no special dispensations for established exporters in the matter of examination of export cargo and export to sensitive destinations will be subject to more stringent examination norms.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Circular no.6 dated 23rd January 2002 supercedes the 1998 instructions on the subject and claims to respond to representations from the trade and recommendations of the Export Promotion Board (EPB).
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First, the Customs will not examine any cargo shipped under free shipping bills i.e. where there is no export incentive. Export goods stuffed and sealed in the presence of the Customs/Central Excise officers at the factories of the manufacturers or at Inland Container Depots (ICD) or Container Freight Stations (CFS) or at notified warehouses or at any other place where the Commissioner has by special order, permitted examination of export goods, will also not be examined at the gateway ports/airports.
But, such containers or packages or bonded trucks must be bottle sealed or lead sealed and accompanied by examination report in the specified format. Of course, if the seals are found tampered with or there is specific intelligence, the Customs can even examine 100 per cent of the packages at the ports/airports.
Secondly, only 2 per cent of the consignments under claim for duty drawback/DEPB upto Rs 1 lakh and consignments under DEEC/EPCG scheme of f.o.b. value up to Rs. 5 lakh will be examined, if they goods are headed for non-sensitive destinations.
The Customs will examine 25 per cent of similar consignments shipped to sensitive destinations. Thirdly, where the duty drawback/DEPB claim is more than Rs 1 lakh or the f.o.b. value of consignment under DEEC/EPCG scheme is more than Rs 5 lakh, 50 per cent of the consignments to sensitive destinations and 10 per cent of the consignments to other destinations will be examined.
In all the consignments selected for examination, a minimum of 2 packages and a maximum of 20 packages will be opened by the Customs.
However, not more than 5 per cent of the packages will be opened and it is the computer system that will select the package numbers to be opened for examination.
The system would also alert when an exporter ships two consignments to the same destination on the same day. The idea is to discourage exporters trying to split the consignments so as to fall within the lower examination norms.
The field formations need to be on guard against such attempts to get around the examination norms.
The CBEC seems more worried about revenue leakage or misuse of the export promotion schemes than about trade facilitation. No doubt, the examination percentage is down to 2 per cent from 5 per cent for non-sensitive destinations and factory/ICD/CFS stuffed containers/packages will not be opened at the gateway ports/airports.
Although most exporters getting their containers factory stuffed should be happy, many others might feel somewhat disappointed.
What the trade wants is a clear distinction between regular, reputed exporters and fly-by-night operators.
If an exporter has been shipping his consignments since say last ten years, without any default, certainly he expects to be treated differently on the basis of his past performance. It is also a bit strange that consignments under EPCG scheme get the same stringent norms as shipments under DEEC scheme.