PUBLIC NOTICE No.23/2000 Date : 22.02.2000

Assessment of Prior / Advance Bills of Entry – Revised Procedure – reg.
Attention of the Importers, Exporters, Custom House Agents and trade is invited regarding revised procedure to be adopted for Assessment of Prior / Advance Bills of Entry on ICES / Import Module.

Under the existing ICES imports system after assessment of the bills of entry filed in advance, further action thereon has to await the filing of the IGM by the Shipping Lines. After the IGM is filed the importer has to again approach the Service Centre for getting the prior Bill of Entry regularised. In order to eliminate this stage specially in cases where there is no change in the rate of duty between the date of the Bills of Entry and the date of entry inward, a modified software for assessment of prior Bills of Entry is being introduced. The salient features of the revised software are as follows:

1. Advance/prior Bills of Entry would be submitted as usual before entry inwards. The checklist for the Bills of Entry would show the duty as applicable on the date of filing of the Bill of Entry. On submission the Bill of Entry will be appraised as usual. Till this point there is no change from the existing procedure.

2. On assessment one copy of the Bill of Entry alongwith three copies of the duty paying challan would be printed. However, the duty would be calculated at this stage on the basis of rates as applicable on the date of assessment taking into account any changes in the rates that may have taken place between the date of filing of the Bill of Entry and the date of its assessment.

3. The importer has now the option either to pay the duty as assessed and indicated in the challan or await the filing of the IGM and finalisation of the Bill of Entry before payment of duty. (Interest liabilty will commence two days after the regularisation of the Bill of Entry).

4. In case the importer chooses to pay the duty, the Bill of Entry would be marked to the shed in the System but will not be available for examination of goods or out of thereof charge thereof until the IGM has been filed and the Bill of Entry regularised.

5. When the IGM is filed and entered in the System, it will check for such prior advance Bills of Entries and match the Bill of Lading numbers and the number of packages as entered in the IGM and as declared in the Bill of Entry. Where these parameters match the Bill of Entry will be updated with reference to the IGM particulars and the date of entry inwards. If however the files of Bill of Lading n. are incorrect in the IGM, the matching process would be carried out only after correction. Similarly, if the number of package do not match this would need to be corrected in the IGM by the Shipping Agent before further processing.

6. It may however be noted that if Bill of Lading No. has been incorrectly mentioned in the Bill of Entry, the document cannot be processed further and a new Bill of Entry will have to be filed. The errors as mentioned above can be ascertained from the enquiry counter by the CHAs/ importers for necessary action to carry out the corrections.

In case there has been a change in the rate of duty or in the text of the notification, the Bill of Entry would be reassessed by the Appraising Officer and a challan for differential duty if any would be generated. If the duty has not been paid on the prior Bill of Entry, the challan would be generated for whole amount of the duty paid.

Sd/- (18.02.2000)
(K.P. SINGH)
COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (IMPORT)
MUMBAI.


Attested by

(ROOPAM KAPOOR)
DEPUTYCOMMISSIONEROF CUSTOMS(MUMBAI)
MUMBAI.

Issued from F.No. S/1-144/99 – EDP.

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