Faceless Assessment of Cargo to be Implemented soon by Customs in India

To promote ease of doing business, the Customs plans the implementation of a faceless assessment of cargo in the next few months in India. This will certainly ease the custom clearing process to import or export of goods.

The Scheme

Central Board of Excise Duty issued a circular regarding the launch of virtual assessment of the cargo under the ‘Turant custom scheme’. The nominated officer of the virtual group will carry out the procedure of assessing the goods. Similarly, this will be done on a first cum first serve basis and ensure uniformity in the assessment procedures.

Commissioner of Customs (City and ICD) Bangalore, Baswaraj Nalegave, stated that under the scheme, the assessment will no longer be required to be done at the place of filing of Bill of entry. The specialized custom houses based in every country can perform the task irrespective of where they file the bill. A bill of the entry contains necessary information like nature, quantity, and value of goods exported or imported. Commissioner also stated that every seaport has its own method of assessing the goods. Faceless assessment of cargo will also check on custom officers adherence to rule while assessing the cargo.

DIN Concept

Central Board of Indirect taxes and customs (CBIC) implemented a Document identification number that will allow the custom and excise duty payers to check the authenticity of the communications. Now, any summon letter or tax notice without DIN number will be considered invalid. This will increase transparency in the procedures and help to curb corrupt practices. The CBIC website will facilitate the verification of the genuineness of the documents. In addition, DIN along with faceless assessment of cargo will ease the process of custom clearance.

Licensed Economic Operator

The customs department declared to make changes in the process of making authorized economic dealer (AEO). The authorized dealer will no longer require a ten-lakh bank guarantee to become a licensed logistics operator. Above all, this arrangement complies with the world trade organization’s goal of providing maximum advantage to AEO in multi and bilateral trade agreements.

The Customs department has already raised India’s ranking from 77 to 63 in ease of doing business and is making continuous efforts to improve it further. Therefore, ease of doing business will certainly get better after implementation of faceless assessment of cargo.