Meeting with the Trade on Problems related to ICES and ICEGATE

Held on 28-01-2004,

at EDI Conference Hall, Custom House, Chennai-1

MINUTES OF THE MEETING

The meeting was chaired by Ms. Kajal Singh, Joint Commissioner of Customs (Systems). S/Shri M.G. Thamizh Valavan, Deputy Commissioner of Customs (Systems), P. Gopakumar, Appraiser (Systems), G. Palanivel Rajan, Principal System Analyst, NIC and Swaminathan, Manager, EDI Service Centre, represented the Department. Representatives from the CHA Association and Steamer Agents Association, Importers, Exporters and Custom House Agents attended the Meeting. In total, 46 representatives from the Trade participated.

 

2.         The Joint Commissioner welcomed the gathering and invited them for a free discussion on matters related to the ICES and the ICEGATE. She has expressed concern over the poor response from the Trade for filing through the ICEGATE in Chennai Cutoms – Sea Port and requested the members to come forward with the real problems they face in the matter.

 

3.         Mr. Padmanabhan of M/s.Lee and Muirhead and Mr. Aleemuddin of M/s. Yes Yem Enterprises, who are the pioneers in filing Bs/E through ICEGATE gave a brief about the procedures and the details of the software they are using for the benefit of the other members.

 

4.         The following points received by email were taken up for discussion:

 

(i)         Printing of duty challan to be done only after bond is debited by Group 6 Clerk in Project import cases

 

Reply: Bond can be debited at any stage after assessment. If the problem is with the amount of the Bond, the importer may take proper care to arrive at the correct amount. However, a facility to provide a message during printing of duty challan where required bond amount is not available is to be explored.

 

 (ii)       Statement of Bs/E to be sent to all importers every month.

 

Reply: Not feasible at present.The importers themselves may keep details of their Bs/E filed by them.

 

(iii)              

(a)                         In the terms of export contract, one more term DDU (Door delivery Duty Unpaid) to be added.

(b)                         Issues related to online submission to ICEGATE – Represented by Lemur Group

(c)                         Problem in ICEGATE submission of Exports – Negative Acknowledgement with message “FOREX bank details of IEC not found”, even when the A D Code information was correctly furnished.

(d)                         Separate Bank A/C No. is required for Sea and Air for DBK purpose

(e)                         Amendments and Replies to queries to be made online in ICEGATE filing.

(f)                           Submission of licence details on a floppy or in a CD may be made available

 

Reply: All the above points will be addressed to the DoS for suitable remedy.

 

(iv)              Submission of IECode online.

 

Reply: A snapshot of DGFT’s IECode directory is being utilized for IECS. No need for submission of IEC by the trade.

 

(v)        Accessing the licence data available on the DGFT Server.

 

Reply: This will take place only when the ICES Gateway is fully functional.

 

5.         Subsequently, the participants  raised the following issues:

 

(i)                  As the software for ICEGATE filing is given for a specific CHA Number by the NIC, two software have to be bought for filing in Sea and Air.

 

Reply: The issue will be brought to the notice of NIC, the vendor to avoid this inconvenience.

 

(ii)                The Transhipment Applications (TSAs) do not serve any purpose in the new EDI environment. IGM and EGM should be interlinked and cancellation of Bank Guarantees should automatically take place.

 

Reply: The matter will be examined.

 

(iii)               Printouts of IGMs for distribution to the sections of Custom House may be dispensed with as it takes more time. Moreover, all the details are available in the System.

 

Reply: The matter will be examined.

 

(iv)              EGMs are filed through floppies. But, hard copies of the EGM for EDI Shipping Bills are collected from the Agents and given at the Service Centre. This again a waste of time and resources. Atleast it should be restricted to the collection of Mate’s Receipt.

 

Reply: This will be examined.

 

(v)                IGM details should be made online to facilitate filing of documents through ICEGATE, especially for LCL Consignments.

 

Reply: The matter will be brought to the notice of DoS.

 

(vi)              For Bills of Entry after completion of examination under First Check, facility for OOC directly after assessment should be provided to save time, as is the case in the manual Bs/E.

 

Reply: This is a valid point and will be forwarded to the DoS and NIC.In the mean time, any possible remedy at local level  would be examined.

 

(vii)             For First Check Bs/E the practice is to register the B/E first at the Docks Office and then in the respective CFS/CWC. In some cases where there is a delay in getting permission from Docks Office the B/E reaches the CFS/CWC after 3.30 pm, and registration is not allowed. Registration should be allowed for such Bs/E even after 3.30 p.m. otherwise, the registration in the Docks Office may be done away with.

 

Reply: Accepted. Necessary instruction would be issued

 

(viii)           For Self Appraised Bs/E, facility for Shed Audit should be given in the CFS/CWC to avoid delay.

 

Reply: Shed Audit is a special role assigned to an officer and it cannot be decentralized.

 

(ix)              Payment of Extra Duty Deposit in cases other than SVB Loading also is to be incorporated in the System to make payment through TR6 Challan.

 

Reply: The matter will be brought to the Notice of the DoS for modification of the software.

 

(x)                Facility for Bill of Lading amendment for Advance Bs/E is not available in the System.

 

Reply: This was brought to the notice of the DoS and a software patch has been received and loaded.

 

(xi)              If a Bs/E is assessed provisionally by mistake, the importer is forced to execute a Bond for one rupee to clear the Bs/E.

 

Reply: The facility to correct the mistake is already available in the System.

 

(xii)             In the case of Ex-Bond Bs/E the debits are done by the System automatically. However, the importers are required to make debits in the Bond Section manually which amounts duplication of work and delay.

 

Reply: This point is well taken and a decision will be taken in this regard after consulting the Bonds Department.

 

(xiii)           There should be a common account head for manual and EDI Bills. When a B/E is cancelled in EDI due to some technical problem and manual B/E is filed, the Draft already taken for EDI B/E is not accepted by the Treasury since it was drawn in favour of Indian Bank.

 

Reply: The issue needs consideration and will be examined.

 

(xiv)           Mica powder is assessed under different RITC heads in Kolkata Customs and in Chennai Customs. Whereas, in the later Cess leviable, and in the former Cess is not leviable.

 

Reply: Not related to ICES. The issue is technical in nature and needs to be examined by the assessing officer. The Cess Schedule is available in the Chennai Customs Website.

 

(xv)            Tracking of documents should be made available in the Chennai Customs Website on online basis as available in the Touch Screen.

 

Reply: Document tracking is available in the ICEGATE (www.icegate.gov.in) for all the Bs/E and S/Bs. The query status and the query text will also be made available in the ICEGATE. The IVRS facility may also be utilized in this regard.

 

(xvi)           In the Bs/E items lengthy description is not getting printed fully.

 

Reply: The full description will be available in the System but due to space constraint only 120 characters are getting printed in the printout. However, the matter will be referred to the DoS.

 

(xvii)         IGM inward date should be made online.

 

Reply: The required details are uploaded in the Chennai Customs Website on a daily basis (http://www.chennaicustoms.org/html/igm_rpt.lis)

 

(xviii)        The queries raised are not delivered in time through email. In case of Bs/E filed in ICEGATE, sometimes, the queries are received only after clearance of the goods.

 

Reply: The first issue will be taken care. In this connection it may be noted that many queries are returned undelivered, as the email addresses furnished are invalid. The importers / exporters are requested to furnish their correct email addresses.

 

(xix)           There should be a facility in the System to incorporate Test Report in Bs/E.

 

Reply: This matter was already thought of and addressed to the DoS.

 

(xx)      Special Instruction for examination should be printed in the first copy of the Bs/E along with the Examinaiton Order to help the CHAs to collect the required clarifications.

 

Reply: Examination instructions may be confidential in nature and these are given in special cases. It cannot be printed along with the Examination Order.

 

(xxi)     SVB finalized cases may be made available to the officers by way of a message in the System.

 

Reply: The matter will be brought to the notice of the DoS to provide such facility.

 

6.         The good response to the meeting was appreciated and it was decided by the Joint Commissioner (Systems) that such interactions would be held on a monthly basis in future. The Deputy Commissioner (Systems) thanked all the participants for their active participation and valuable suggestion.

 

7.         Next meeting will be held in the first week of March 2004 and date and time will be intimated separately.

 

8.         This issues with approval of the Commissioner (Sea- Exports)

 

 

Sd/-
(M.G. THAMIZH VALAVAN)
Deputy Commissioner of Customs (Systems)

F.No.S.Misc.10/2004-Sys.Unit.

Custom House, Chennai-1

Dated: 04-02-2004