Amendment Procedure in Advance Bill of Entry Decentralised

[Facility Circular 41/2018 dated 14.09.2018]

Attention of all importers, Exporters, Customs Brokers and the members of the Trade is invited to the Facility Circular No. 19/2018 dated 29.03.2018 wherein the procedure of Advance filing of Bill of Entry is prescribed.

2. As a measure to ensure faster clearances, reduce dwell time of cargo and as a step towards "Ease of Doing Business", it was decided that all the Bills of Entry have to be filed in the ICES system as Advance/Prior Bills of Entry mandatorily. One major difficulty expressed by the trader in filing the advance Bill of Entry is that the amendment process of Bills of Entry is cumbersome and takes a long time.

3. At present request for amendment of non-facilitated Bills of Entry is received by the AC/DC with all supporting documents. The request is processed in the group in a file by TA/EO/AO and then the Assistant Commissioner is finally approving in the System by recalling the Bill of Entry. In the case of a facilitated Bill of Entry, the file is submitted to JC/ADC for necessary approval before it is recalled. The amendments pertaining to Master/House Bill of Landing are directly done in the system by the AC/DC and all other amendments are carried out in Service Centre and a job number is created after necessary amendments are made. The AC/DC of the group is approving the amendments.

4. The above procedure has been simplified and the following procedure is prescribed to expedite the process of amendments in an advance Bill of Entry.

5. An Amendment Cell is created with one PO/EO at Room No. G-110 (1st floor) who will receive all the requests for amendments with supporting documents with applicable amendment fee. He will scrutinize the details and get it approved by the concerned AC/DC within two hours of the request being filed by the Importer/Customs Broker in the following manner:

5.1 The request for amendments of Master Bill of Lading or House Bill of Landing number in Bill of Entry by PO/EO and get the necessary approval of AC (Group). The request for other amendments are taken to Service Centre for necessary entries and note the job number on the face of the application and the same may be submitted to AC (Group) for approving the amendments in the System. Any amendment involving recall of a facilitated Bill of Entry for DPD importers may be carried out by AC (Group) without an approval of JC/ADC.

5.2 All the application processed in a day, may be kept in a box file date-wise for record purpose. The procedure of opening a file and scrutiny by different officers is dispensed with.

5.3 The AC/DC (Group) shall give priority to approve the amendments, giving regard to the commitment by the department.

Difficulties if any, in implementation of these instructions may be brought to the notice of the undersigned.

(R. Srinivasa Naik)

Commissioner of Customs (Import)

Chennai

F.No. S. Misc. 02/2017-Appg. Main Ch-II