Public Notice No. 28/2023, issued by the Office of the Principal Commissioner of Customs (Chennai-III), outlines significant changes to the management of warehoused goods. These alterations aim to safeguard government revenue while clarifying rules for importers, warehouse licensees, and customs brokers.
Government of India
Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue
Office of the Principal Commissioner of Customs, (Chennai-III) (Preventive)
Custom House, No.60, Rajaji Salai, Chennai-600 001
F.No. II/(7)/17/2023-BOND-O/O PR COMMR-CUS-PREV-CHENNAI
Public Notice No. 28/2023 | Date: 28-08-2023
Subject:- Effective monitoring of Warehoused goods to safeguard revenue- reg.
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The attention of Importers, Customs Brokers, Warehouse licencees, members of the trade and all other stakeholders are invited to the warehoused goods being stored in the Customs Bonded Warehouses under the provision of warehousing bond executed by the importer.
2. It has been observed that certain practices being followed by certain importers in above context are detrimental to the government revenue and not in consonance with existing provisions of law. Some of the same are as under:-
(i) That there are number of Warehousing bonds submitted by the Importers for which the warehousing period of the imported goods had already expired, but the licencees have neither come forward to cancel their bond nor sought an extension of the warehousing period of uncleared warehoused goods;
(ii) That, as per the prevalent practice, the subsequent bonders (buyer importers), who purchased goods on the bond-to-bond transfer basis do not provide Bank Guarantee, wherever required at the time of execution of bond for the bond to bond sale of warehoused goods during the extended warehousing period. Due to this practice (which is also against the letter and spirit of the existing provisions on this subject), buyer Importers are not taking interest either in submitting documents to close their bond or seeking extension of the warehousing period;
(iii) That many importers of the warehoused goods apply for extension/OTC after expiry of the warehoused period;
(iv) That some importers of the warehoused goods have filed Ex-bond Bills of Entry (due to which the In-Bond Bill of Entry quantity in EDI reduces by stock in Ex-Bond BE) but the duty payments against such Ex-Bond Bills of Entries have not been done;
(v) That at the time of initial warehousing or bond-to-bond transfer of goods, the importers of the warehoused goods do not declare the shelf life/expiry of the goods.
(vi) That after clearance of all the warehoused goods either by way of Ex-Bond or Bond-to Bond sale or Re-export, the importers do not submit supporting documents to the Bond section with request for closure of Bond, which inter-alia leads to pendency of the time expired bonds even though in many cases actual liability might have discharged;
(vii) That the importers are submitting fresh warehousing bonds against their continued imports even though they have not discharged their old bonds liability executed with Bonds Section, Chennai Customs Preventive Commissionerate even though in many cases their Bond period had already expired.
3. Therefore, in order to streamline the practice being followed in the Commissionerate to be in line with the provisions of the Act and the procedure laid by the Board, the following guidelines are being issued:
i. At the time of initial warehousing or bond-to-bond transfer, the shelf life of the goods is mandatory to be declared as Annexure to the Bond submitted by the importer:
ii. At the time of initial warehousing or bond-to-bond transfer, the shelf life of the goods to be warehoused is less than 1 year the request of warehousing period should be sufficiently lesser than the balance shelf life (at least two months prior to the expiry of warehoused goods), otherwise Bond accepting authority will restrict the said bonding period depending on the shelf life of the goods being warehoused.
iii. The importer/owner of warehoused goods is required to apply for an extension of the warehousing period of warehoused goods within the period of warehousing along with the justifiable reasons for seeking an extension of the warehousing period. No request for extension of the warehousing period will be entertained after the expiry of the warehousing period as some of the importers have been seen to be taking the liberty of not applying for extension well within the expiry time. Henceforth, The Bond section will issue demand notice under Section 72(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 for clearance of their goods or extension of the bond and the importer has to response to the notice before expiry of the Bond.
iv. The warehoused goods, in respect of which the time period of warehousing has been extended when sold on the bond-to-bond transfer basis, the buyer-importer is required to submit Bond with Bank Guarantee of the requisite amount as per Section 59 of the Customs Act read with Circular No.21/2016 at the time applying for acceptance of the bond. After effecting the sale through the bondto-bond transfer & acceptance of Bond with Bank Guarantee, if any from buyer-importer, the Bank Guarantee if any, of the same amount as executed by the seller-importer will be considered for release to seller-importer;
v. The importer of the warehoused goods who had filed Ex-bond Bills of Entry, but not discharged the duty liability, is advised to do so the same immediately or cancel their ex-bond Bill of Entry (if filed wrongly) without any further delay before expiry of the bond.
vi. After clearance of all warehoused goods or after the lapse of the bonding period, the concerned importer will have to submit all the details of clearance along with the supporting documents to the Bond Section for the purpose Of closure of the bond.
4. This public notice will come into effect immediately after issuance.
5. All trade associations/members of the Customs Brokers Association are requested to take note and publicize the contents of this Public Notice among their members/constituents.
6. For departmental officers, this may be treated as Standing Order.
7. Difficulty, if any, may be brought to the notice of the Additional Commissioner of Customs, Bonds, Preventive Commissionerate.
MADUR SREEDHAR REDDY
PRINCIPAL COMMISSIONER
O/o Pr Commissioner-Customs-Preventive-Chennai
Copy to:
1. The Chief Commissioner of Customs, Chennai Customs zone, Custom House, Chennai for information.
2. Principal Commissioners/Commissioners of Customs (Airport, Import, Export, Audit, Air Cargo, General, Appeals I &II)
3. The Deputy Commissioner of Customs, EDI for uploading the Public Notice on official website.
4. The Chennai Customs Broker Association, Chennai-01 5. Notice Board.
