Improve Data Quality or Face Withdrawal of Self Clearance Says JNPT Commissioner

[Customs Public Notice No. 03 dated 12th January 2011]

The following Public Notice was issued by the Commissioner of Customs (Import) Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House on 12th January 2011

Subject: Data quality of information furnished by importers and exporters.

The importance of data quality is not only in levying correct duty on imports or extending appropriate incentives on exports, but also for the purposes of ensuring uniformity of assessment practices, compliance with Allied Acts and correct policy formulation. Needless to mention, poor data quality leads to bad and unethical trade practices which is detrimental to all stakeholders including importers and department and country’s economy in general.

2. Attention is invited to Public Notices No. 42/2010, 81/2010, 124/2010 and 127/2010 issued by JNCH on above mentioned subject. These Public Notices prescribe that full and correct information concerning the goods being imported/exported such as description, brand, model, grade, specification etc, must be filled in appropriate columns of Bill of Entry/Shipping Bills.

3. For stakeholders’ education, Interactive sessions were conducted in Conference Hall of JNCH in April, 2010 and in various places across Mumbai in Dec., 2010 and Jan., 2011 for educating the Custom House Agents and members of the trade about the benefits of good data quality and legal requirements thereof. Consequent to these initiatives, certain improvement in the data quality has also been noticed.

4. It is also noticed that many importers/exporters are filing the Bills of Entry/ Shipping Bills in ‘self’ i.e. clearing in their own name. To educate this section of the trade and to apprise them the benefits of good data quality, an interactive-cum-training session has been arranged as per venue, date and timings below:

Date	Venue and time
1.2.2010	7th Floor Conference Hall, JNCH

All importers/exporters filing bills of entry/shipping bills under self clearance are requested to depute their representatives especially those who are filing documents with Customs, to attend this session without fail. In case they do not attend this session and deficiencies in data submission are noticed in their documents, the permission to operate under self-clearance shall be withdrawn.

5. This issues with the approval of the Chief Commissioner, JNCH.

F.NO. S/22-GEN-297/2010 AM (IMP) JNCH