Procedure for Disposal of Confiscated Drones by Customs
·
DGCA's
Drone guidelines on 'Requirements for Operation of Civil Remotely Piloted
Aircraft System (RPAS)
·
Drones
owned/ operated by National Technical Research Organisation
(NTRO), Aviation Research Centre (ARC) and Central lntelligence
Agencies are exempted from obtaining UIN
·
Drones
are required to get Equipment Type Approval (ETA) from WPC Wing
·
Drones
should not be auctioned/ sold as such or even in dismantled condition in the
open market
·
Integrated
Financial Unit (IFU) of the Ministry of Finance has concurred with the proposal
for transfer of such Drones to the eligible agencies within the Government
free-of-charge on gratis basis
·
Guidelines
prescribed for disposal of confiscated Drones which are 'ripe for disposal’
·
Drones
of all the categories shall be transferred to the warehouses of Customs
formations, namely, Chennai (Airport), Delhi (IGlA),
Kolkata (Airport) and Mumbai (Airport), which shall be the focal Commissionerates for stocking, segregation, joint
inspection by all agencies and distribution
·
Customs
formations shall transfer the stock of Drones only after they are 'ripe for
disposal'
·
The
Superintendent in-charge of Warehouse shall prepare the list of Drones and get
the approval of the Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner concerned before such
transfer
·
Focal
Customs Commissionerates, the general principle of
identification. segregation and distribution of the stock of the seized/
confiscated Drones
·
Annexure
A: Mapping
of Customs Zones to the Focal Customs Commissionerates
for transfer of confiscated Drones
·
Annexure
B: Document for
Transit Acknowledgment for Confiscated
Drones
·
Annexure
C: List
of Nodal Officers
·
Annexure
D: Transfer
of Confiscated Drones to Recipient
[Circular
No. - 32/2019 dated 20.09.2019]
Subject: Disposal of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)/Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle (UAVs)/remotely piloted Aircrafts (RPAS)/Drones.
Unmanned
Aircraft Systems (UAS)/ Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVS)/ Remotely Piloted
Aircrafts (RPAS)/ Drones, (herein-after referred to as 'Drones') of various
frequencies brought by the passengers at different Airports or imported at
various ports, FPOs, etc., in contravention of the statutory requirements, have
been absolutely confiscated as per legal process. Accordingly, the Customs
field formations have sought the Board's guidelines for the disposal of such
confiscated Drones.
2.
The matter of disposal of the confiscated Drones has been examined in
consultation with the regulatory agencies such as the Director General of Civil
Aviation (DGCA), the Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) Wing of the
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Home
Affairs (MHA). During such consultation, the following points emanated, namely-
(i) DGCA's Drone guidelines on 'Requirements for Operation of Civil
Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS)', which are available at http://dgca.nic.in/cars/D3X-XI.pdf prescribe
the regulatory requirements, restrictions and procedure relating to licensing
and operation of Drones.
(ii) The Drones
owned/ operated by National Technical Research Organisation
(NTRO), Aviation Research Centre (ARC) and Central lntelligence
Agencies are exempted from obtaining UIN.
(iii) The Drones are
required to get Equipment Type Approval (ETA) from WPC Wing. There is no
exemption to any agency/organisation in this regard.
(iv) The
MHA has categorically directed that the Drones should not be auctioned/ sold as
such or even in dismantled condition in the open market; and that due to
security reasons, these should be handed-over to the Defence/
Security Forces only.
3.
On its part, the Integrated Financial Unit (IFU) of the Ministry of Finance has
concurred with the proposal for transfer of such Drones to the eligible
agencies within the Government free-of-charge on gratis basis.
4.
In the circumstance, the following guidelines are prescribed for disposal of
confiscated Drones which are 'ripe for disposal':
a) All the
formations shall prepare an inventory of Drones, available as-on-date,
according to their type, make, model, etc. The drones will be classified in
accordance with the DGCA guidelines. Para 3.1 of these guidelines provides the
categorization of the Drones, as follows:
"3.1 Civil RPA is categorized in
accordance with Maximum All-Up-Weight (including payload) as indicated below:
(i) Nano: Less than or equal to 250 grams.
(ii) Micro: Greater than 250 grams and less
than or equal to 2 kg.
(iii) Small: Greater than 2 kg and less than or equal
to 25 kg.
(iv) Medium:
Greater than 25 kg and less than or equal to 150 kg.
(v) Large: Greater than 150 kg.";
b) All the Drones of
all the categories shall be transferred to the warehouses of the following
Customs formations, namely, Chennai (Airport), Delhi (IGlA),
Kolkata (Airport) and Mumbai (Airport), which shall be the focal Commissionerates for stocking, segregation, joint
inspection by all agencies and distribution. For this purpose, all the Customs
Zones have been mapped to these focal Commissionerates
as indicated at Annexure-A.
c) The Customs
formations shall transfer the stock of Drones only after they are 'ripe for
disposal'. Adequate precaution shall be taken, so that no pilferage/ loss takes
place during such transfer. The Superintendent in-charge of Warehouse shall
prepare the list of Drones and get the approval of the Principal Commissioner/
Commissioner concerned before such transfer. The list of Drones shall contain
category, type, make, quantity and any other information which may be available
on the package; due acknowledgement of receipt of the Drones at the destination
Focal Customs Commissionerates should be given and a
corresponding receipt entry shall be made in the Warehouse/ Disposal Register.
The Pro-forma for maintaining a record of the transfer and acknowledgement are
given at Annexure-B. Copies shall be kept by the Warehouse/ Disposal
Sections of the transferring Customs Zones and the Focal Customs Commissionerates.
d) At the Focal
Customs Commissionerates, the general principle of
identification. segregation and distribution of the
stock of the seized/ confiscated Drones shall be as follows:
(i) In regard to the stock of the Drones that is presently available,
the following action will be taken:
a) The requirements of
DRI and Customs field formations shall be met first from the available stock of
Drones. For this purpose, any Customs field formation requiring the Drones for
their operational purpose, shall make a request to the DGRI, which shall make a
recommendation for approval to the Board. After such approval, the DRI may
include the requirement of the field formation(s) to its own requirement for
determining their total requirement; and convey the same to all the Focal
Customs Commissionerates.
b) The Focal Customs Commissionerates shall intimate DRI and the concerned
Customs field formation about the availability/ receipt of the Drones, and the
DRII Customs field formation will then identify and take possession of the
Drones as per their requirement.
c) The remaining stock
of Drones will be distributed equally between the MoD
& the
MHA (and their constituent organizations/ agencies) after a joint inspection
that will be conducted by the nodal officers of the MoD
and the MHA (or their authorised representatives).
(ii) As regard the
future stock of the Drones that are received by the Focal Customs Commissionerates from time to time, the requirements of DRI
and Customs field formations shall be met first. Thereafter, the MoD & the MHA (and their constituent organizations/ agencies)
shall be invited
for a joint inspection to be conducted by the nodal officers of the MoD and the MHA (or their representatives) bi-annually in
the second/ third week of January and July. In case either Ministry does not
turn up for such joint inspection or forgoes its quota, the same would be made
available to the other.
(iii) In the event, the
DRI (or Customs field formation) does not require any Drones, the same shall be
intimated by the DRI to the Focal Customs Commissionerate;
and the available stock will then be distributed equally between the MoD & the MHA (and their constituent organizations/ agencies). In
case either Ministry forgoes its quota, the same would be made available to the
other.
e) For
the joint inspection and segregation of the Drones by different agencies:
(i) The Additional/ Joint Commissioner of Customs in-charge of
'Warehouse and Disposal' of the Focal Commissionerate,
shall be the contact point for coordination with the DRI, the MoD and the MHA;
(ii) The Additional
Director/ Joint Director (Policy), DRI-Headquarters or the Additional/ Joint
Director of the Zonal Unit, as nominated by DG (DRI), shall be the nodal
officer for the DRI; and
(iii) The Nodal
officers of the MoD and the MHA are given in Annexure-C.
f) The
MoD and the MHA will communicate the change of the
Nodal Officers (or their authorized representatives) as-and-when such change
happens, to the Commissioner (Investigation - Customs) at mgt.valavan@nic.in, CBIC.
The Nodal officers shall, preferably, be at the level of Director/ Deputy
Secretary.
g) The Additional/
Joint Commissioner of Customs in-charge of Warehouse and Disposal of the Focal
Customs Commissionerate will intimate the date and
time of inspection of drones well in advance to the agencies concerned, and
such date shall be mutually convenient for all the agencies;
h) The transfer of
the Drones, within the CBIC as well as to the MoD and
the MHA, is subject to the following conditions:
(i) The Drones shall be supplied on gratis basis
(free-of-cost), on 'as-is where-is' condition;
(ii) It
will be the responsibility of the recipient to comply with all the regulatory
requirements as mentioned at Para 2 above and the DGCA conditions/ restrictions
regarding possession and utilization of the Drones. The recipient shall produce
all the necessary documents to this effect to the Additional/ Joint
Commissioner of Customs concerned at the Focal Customs Commissionerate
at the time of taking over of the Drones;
(iii) No
Drone would be resold after the end of their life or when they become obsolete
or irreparable. Such Drones shall be destroyed by all the recipient;
(iv) Proper acknowledgement
shall be obtained
and kept by the respective Focal Customs Commissionerate
upon transfer of Drones to the recipients mentioned above. Such acknowledgment
shall contain the details of the Drones, including their category, type, make,
quantity and any other information which may be available on the package. A
pro-forma, in this regard is given at Annexure- D.
(v) Upon
transfer of the Drones, a suitable entry, to this effect, shall be made in the
Warehouse/ Disposal Register at the Focal Customs Commissionerate.
5.
The Principal Chief Commissioners/ Chief Commissioners/ Principal Directors General/
Directors General are, hereby, directed to circulate these guidelines to all
the formations under their charge.
6.
Difficulties, if any, in implementation of these guidelines may be brought to
the notice of the Board.
7.
This issues with the approval of the Competent Authority.
F. No. 394/08/2017-Commr anv.-Cus.)
Annexure- A
[to Board' Circular No.-32/2019
vide F. No. 394/08/2017-Commr (Inv.-Cus)]
Mapping
of Customs Zones to the Focal Customs Commissionerates
for transfer of confiscated Drones
|
S.No. |
Customs
/ CGST Zone |
Focal
Customs Commissionerates |
|
1. |
Chennai,
Tiruchirappalli (P), Thiruvananthapurarn (Kochi),
Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad |
Chennai
(Airport) |
|
2. |
Kolkata,
Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Patna (P) |
Kolkata
(Airport) |
|
3. |
Mumbai-I,
Mumbai-II, Mumbai-III, Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur |
Mumbai
(Airport) |
|
4. |
Delhi,
Delhi (P), Bhopal |
Delhi
(lGIA) |
Annexure-
B
[Circular No.- 32/2019 vide F. No.
394/08/2017-Commr (Inv.-Cus)]
Document for Transit Acknowledgment for Confiscated Drones
|
S.No. |
Category |
Make/Type |
Any other Relevant
Information Available on the Package |
Quantity (in number) |
|
(1) |
(2) |
(3) |
(4) |
(5) |
Signature:
Date:
Name:
Designation:
Superintendent
of Customs,
Disposal/Warehouse
Section,
............Commissionerate
Acknowledgement
Received total….... Drones, as listed
above, after checking and tallying with the entries mentioned in the above
table.
Signature:
Date:
Name:
Designation:
Superintendent
of Customs,
Disposal/Warehouse Section,
.........Commissionerate
Annexure-
C
[Circular No.- 32/2019 vide F. No.
394/08/2017-Commr (Inv.-Cus)]
List
of Nodal Officers
|
S.No |
Organization |
Nodal
Officer |
Contact
No./Mobile No. |
|
1. |
SPG |
Sh.
Sunil Kumar, SSO/Tech |
011-23015964/
9968534765 |
|
2. |
CRPF |
Sh.
Vaibhav Kumar Srivastava, Assistant Commandant |
9899359226 |
|
3. |
NSG |
Major
Surender Singh |
9001733778/
7976966601 |
|
|
|
AC-II
Thorat BM |
9340730105 |
|
4. |
NTRO |
Maj
DS Sidhu (Retd), Senior Aviator |
8019500111 |
|
5. |
CISF |
Sh.
Shrikant Kishore, DIG |
011-25673068/011-49654286 |
|
6. |
BSF |
Sh.
D.S. Bisht, Commandant (Ops) |
9856182908 |
|
|
|
DC
(Mod), Prov Dte, BSF |
|
|
|
|
DC
(R&D), Comn & IT Dte,
FHQ. BSF |
|
|
7. |
ITBP |
Sh.
R.P.S. Raghuvanshi, Commandant (Nodal Officer) |
011-24360486 |
|
|
|
Sh.
Hem Chandra Kapil, Dy. Commandant |
9410738312 |
|
|
|
Nikhil
Yadav, Sub-Inspector |
8882298991 |
|
8. |
DGI,
GS Branch |
Col
Prashant Pande, YSM |
011-23018398 |
Annexure- D
[Circular No.- 32/2019 vide F. No.
394/08/2017-Commr (lnv.-Cus)]
Transfer of Confiscated Drones to
Recipient
|
S.
No. |
Category |
Make/Type |
Any
other Relevant Information Available on the Package |
Quantity
(in number) |
|
(1) |
(2) |
(3) |
(4) |
(5) |
Acknowledgement
Handed over and
received stock of drones after checking and tallying with the entries mentioned
in the above Table.
|
Officer
Handing over |
Officer
Receiving |
|
Signature:
Date:
Name: Designation:
Additional/Joint
Commissioner of Customs, Disposal/Warehouse Section, .........Commissionerate |
Signature:
Date:
Name: Designation:(Not below the rank of Director/Deputy
Secretary) Agency:
Ministry: |