Directorate General of Systems and Data Management
CENTRAL BOARD OF INDIRECT TAXES & CUSTOMS
Dept. of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India
Date: Sep 13th, 2020
Advisory No: 32/2020
Category: Turant Cus.
Issued by: DGoS, ICES
Subject: Turant Customs – All India roll-out of Faceless Assessment
In pursuance of Board’s Circular 40/2020 – Customs dated 04.09.2020, the roll-out of Faceless Assessment at an All India level in all ports of import and for all imported goods has to be enabled by 31.10.2020. The detailed roll-out plan in phases covering different Customs Zones and Chapters of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, including the existing Phases I and II, has been given in Annexure I of the aforesaid Circular. Further in this regard, the Board’s Instruction No 09/2020 – Customs dated 05.06.20 has already elaborated the procedure to be followed. Since different Customs locations across India now become part of the Faceless Assessment as per the roll-out plan, different facets of it in ICES are detailed below.
1. Identification of Customs site performing Faceless Assessment within each Zone of a National Assessment Centre (NAC) :- Board has decided to constitute total eleven (11) National Assessment Centres (NACs) for performing Faceless Assessment. The details are mentioned in the Annexure II of the aforesaid circular. As a prerequisite, the Nodal Commissioners from each zone in the respective NAC are required to identify the Customs sites (FAG Sites) in their jurisdiction that will be performing Faceless Assessment for the corresponding group(s) associated with that NAC. An officer order designating the FAG sites and nominating the officers for the Faceless Assessment Group at the designated site may also be issued by the respective nodal Commissioner. DG Systems will ensure necessary activation of faceless assessment group at the designated site in the System.
2. Site and Role allocation :- For Faceless Assessment Group (hereinafter referred to as FAG) comprising of the officers who will be nominated for doing Faceless Assessment at identified sites as per S.No. 1 above, new roles have been created in ICES – VAO (for the appraiser of the FAG) and VDC (for the AC/DC of the FAG). Respective System Managers may allot VAO and VDC roles to the nominated officers at these sites. The group allocation for these officers can also be done from ADN role like it is done for other appraising roles.
3. Functionalities in VAO and VDC Roles :- The functionalities are similar to the existing Appraiser (APR) and AC-Appraising (ACL) roles. Query can be raised by faceless group, can be replied to online through ICEGATE, and amendments too can be filed online. Amendments filed before the completion of assessment will also come to the FAG for approval. Facility of eSanchit can be used for submission of all the relevant supporting documents. Functionalities other than assessment like Section 48 approval, Single Window Recall, Bond Management, OOC Cancellation etc. will continue to be with the port of Import only and will not be available in these new roles meant for faceless assessment.
4. Administrator Role :- Additionally, a new role with name VDN has been created which can be allotted to the JC/ADC in-charge of FAG. The option to push a Bill of Entry from FAG to Port of Import in exceptional circumstances as given in the Board’s Instructions is also available with the VDN role. The option to recall a Bill of Entry from FAG to the Port of Import is available in the ADN role at the Port of Import. Both, the recall as well as push, functionalities should be used only in exceptional scenarios and with due approval of the respective JC/ADC or (Pr) Commissioner as explained in the Board’s Instructions. Further, the facility to reallocate BEs from one officer to another officer is available in the VDN role. This facility will soon be made available in the VDC role also.
5. Examination :- As elaborated in the Board’s Instructions, the faceless BEs after First Check examination will come back to the FAG only for completion of assessment. However, any recall or reassessment after Second Check examination, the assessment will be done only at the port of Import. It has been noticed during the pilot run that the BEs are marked by the Examination officers at the Port of Import incorrectly to the Assessment Groups at times. The examination officers in your respective Ports of Import may be guided that First Check BEs of FAG may be marked back only to respective VAO/VDC after examination with detailed examination report to effectively assist the FAG in assessment. Similarly, if any BE is required to be sent back after Second Check examination, the same may be marked only to the assessment group at the Port of Import, i.e. APR as provided in instructions.
6. Turant Suvidha Kendra(TSKs) :- In reference to the ICES Advisory No. 25/2020 dt 09.07.2020, for certain activities at Port of Import like Bond Registration, defacing of documents etc., TSKs may be leveraged.
7. Monitoring :- Pendency reports and dashboards in the System have been made available in the COM role for the Commissioners to monitor pendency and processing of Bills of Entry assigned by the System to the FAG in their jurisdiction. A Virtual Dashboard is also provided where status of BEs pertaining to their jurisdiction but assigned to FAG at any port can be seen. Status reports are available in VDN and VDC roles also for the officers under FAG to take action accordingly.
As per Annexure of the aforesaid Circular, the Faceless Assessment will be enabled for the groups and zones listed for Phase III from 15.09.2020 and for the others subsequently as per the roll-out plan. The FAG sites where the faceless assessment of these groups would actually be done will be enabled in System as per the office order issued by the nodal Commissioners as detailed in S.No. 1 above.
Difficulties, if any, may be emailed to saksham.seva@icegate.gov.in with the subject line –
“Faceless Assessment Phase III/IV etc. —- ” and a copy marked to team.ices@icegate.gov.in.
