Faceless Assessments & Turant Suvidha Kendra for Contactless Customs Administration
In an effort to smoothen the process of imports and exports in India, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) recently vide their Circular No. 32/2020-Customs dated 06th July 2020 has introduced a programme in the name of “Turant Customs” which aimed at providing a Faceless, Contactless and Paperless Customs administration. CBIC has recently introduced a number of initiatives that leverage technology in order to enhance the efficiency in the Customs clearance processes thereby leading to speedy clearance, transparency in decision making, ease of doing business, and very importantly, reduce physical contact in the prevailing pandemic situation.
Continuing with aforementioned initiatives, the CBIC has now decided to take certain measures listed as under:
1. Turant Suvidha Kendra (TSK) in all Custom Formations
Considering the benefits of single phase interface, the Board has decided to extend TSK’s to all the Custom Formations by 15th July 2020. Key features of TSK are as follows:
(a). Automated clearance of Bill of Entry, digitalization of documents, and Faceless Assessments.
(b). E-verification of documents for Faceless Assessment and Custom Compliance Verification (CCV) uploaded on e-Sanchit.
(c). Physical submission of documents at TSK in exceptional situations.
(d). Suitable procedures to be devised for safe keep of documents.
(e). Verification of documents during examination for validation of goods will continue, as at present.
2. Registration of Authorized Dealer Code, Bank Accounts through ICEGATE
CBIC has now enabled a functionality within ICEGATE login which allows the exporters to make an online request for registration/modification of their Authorised Dealer Code (AD Code) Bank Account(s) and also electronically submit the Passbook copy or Bank Authorisation letter through e-Sanchit, which was a manual process in the earlier scenario.
3. Automated debit of the bond after Assessment
It has been decided to do away with this requirement of the physical debit of Bonds after the Bill of Entry is returned to the importer. Instead, ICES would automatically debit the Bond and reflect the same in the first copy of the Bill of Entry. The government also encourages importers to use a continuity bond to avoid procedures related to repeat submission of Bonds.
4. Simplified registration of Importers / Exporters in ICEGATE
Presently, a simplified registration module for Importers / Exporters based on associated Goods and Service Tax Identification Number (GSTIN) has been provided without the requirement of a digital signature but the same is not yet availed. Therefore, it has been advised to register on ICEGATE and conduct clearances through an electronic interface.
Source: Custom Circular No. 32/2020 dated 06th July 2020Last Updated: 29th July 2020 This article is contributed by:
CA Vaibhav Matta Assistant Director, Taxation
Tag: Turant Suvidha Kendra