Faceless Customs
Indian Customs has initiated Faceless Assessment on imports from June 2020 (Reference Circular No. 28/2020-Customs and Instruction No. 09/2020 both dated 05.06.2020). The first phase began by linking Chennai and Bengaluru, which was gradually expanded to other geographical locations till eventual All India coverage by 31.10.2020.
One of the pillars of CBIC’s flagship ‘Turant Customs’ programme, the Faceless Customs initiative leverages technology to introduce anonymity in Customs assessment. Faceless Assessment virtually connects Customs assessment officers from different jurisdictions into a Faceless Assessment Group(s) or FAG. It provides for assignment of import clearance documents that are not facilitated (BE) by the Customs Automated System (CAS) to officers of the FAGs irrespective of the port of import of the goods.
Besides reducing the need for the trade to have a face-to-face interaction with Customs officials for purposes of Customs assessment, Faceless Assessment promotes specialization and uniformity in assessment. Further, by allowing flexibility in balancing workload between various FAGs located in different Customs locations, this initiative enhances the efficiency and speed of Customs assessments which, in turn, reduces dwell time.
Institutional set-up for the Faceless Customs initiative
1. Local set-up at port of import:
The port of import is the Customs station of import where the goods lie, and the importer has entered a Bills of Entry (BE) for home consumption or warehousing. Faceless Assessment is supported by the Port Assessment Group (PAG), Turant Seva Kendra (TSK) and Import Shed officers at each port of import. These units perform specified functions, as follows:
Customs Clearance Processes – Before and After Turant Customs
(a) Port Assessment Group (PAG):
- Assessment of cases referred to it by the FAG in specific circumstances
- Post clearance amendments
- Any other function not performed by FAG
(b) Turant Sewa Kendra (TSK):
- Accept Bonds or Bank Guarantee
- Any other verification that may be referred by FAGs
- Endorse documents/permits licenses, wherever required
- Debit documents/permits/licenses, wherever required
- Handle queries related to assessment
- Any other functions entrusted by the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner to facilitate trade
Contact information of TSKs is available on CBIC’s website under Taxpayer Assistance under ‘Enquiry Points’ at https://www.cbic. gov.in/htdocs-cbec/enquiry-points.
(c) Import Shed:
- Physical examination and clearance of the goods
2. Virtual Setup:
(a) National Assessment Centres (NAC): To promote specialisation and uniformity, Customs Commissionerates have been partially re-organised as NACs, with all India jurisdiction. NACs are organised commodity- wise according to the First Schedule of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. Each NAC includes multiple FAGs. Their mandate is to examine assessment practices of imported goods across Customs stations and suggest measures to increase uniformity and quality of assessments.
A NAC is established on the basis of the share of the volume of import of a particular commodity group(s) in a Customs Zone as compared to All India imports and share contributed by the said commodity group(s) or the share of import of the particular commodity group(s) in that Zone.
(b) Faceless Assessment Groups (FAG): Officers from different jurisdictions have been virtually connected on a technology platform to form various FAGs to assess Bills of Entry (BE) falling under an NAC. BE is electronically assigned by the Customs Automated System to the FAG officers for verifying the assessment. Each FAG has an All India jurisdiction. With the introduction of FAG, the assessment function has been delinked with the geographical location where the goods are available for examination.
The functions of FAG include:
- Verification of the self assessment of any BE assigned to them by the Customs Automated System, irrespective of the port of import
- Accept the self-assessment or re-assess the BE and pass a speaking order (unless acceptance is confirmed)
- Providing importers with an opportunity of hearing through online mode before proceeding with the re-assessment
Anonymized escalation: To better address the grievances of trade relating largely to delays in assessment, DG Systems has operationalized an Anonymized Escalation Mechanism (AEM) on ICEGATE which empowers importers/Customs Brokers to directly register his/her requirement of expeditious clearance of a delayed Bill of Entry, which may be pending for assessment.
Standard Examination Orders through RMS:
- To harmonize the examination orders across FAGs, CBIC has implemented system-generated centralized examination orders in a phased manner, in case of risk-based selection for examination after assessment.
- Standardized examination orders will be centrally generated by RMS and populated on the corresponding Bill of Entry, based on a host of risk parameters concerning goods, entities, and countries, relating to that bill.
(Republished with amendments)
