The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the apex rule making body of the Indirect Taxes, on Monday issued a circular regarding Implementation of Electronic Sealing of Containers by Exporters under Self-Sealing procedure with effect from 1st October, 2017.
With a view to bring uniformity and ease of doing business, the Board, issued a circular on July, laid down procedures relating to factory stuffing hitherto carried out under the supervision of the Central Excise officers.
Accordingly, Board has decided to lay down a simplified procedure for stuffing and sealing of export goods in containers.
As per the Notification dated 1st July 2017, the Board said that the Self-sealing procedure would be subject to the following conditions.
- The exporter shall be under an obligation to inform the details of the premises whether a factory or warehouse or any other place where container stuffing is to be carried out, to the jurisdictional customs officer.
- The exporter should be registered under the GST and should be filing GSTRI and GSTR2. Where exporter is not a GST registrant, he shall bring the export goods to a Container Freight Station/Inland Container Depot for stuffing and sealing of container. However, in certain situations, an exporter may follow the self-sealing procedure even if he is not required to be registered under GST Laws. Such an exception is available to the Status Holders recognized by DGFT under a valid status holder certificate issued in this regard.
- Any exporter desirous of availing this procedure shall inform the jurisdictional Custom Officer of the rank of Superintendent or Appraiser of Customs, at least 15 days before the first planned movement of a consignment from his/her factory/ premises, about the intention to follow self- sealing procedure to export goods from the factory premises or warehouse. The jurisdictional Superintendent or an Appraiser or an Inspector of Customs shall visit the premises from where the export goods will be stuffed & sealed for export. The jurisdictional Superintendent or Inspector of Customs shall inspect the premises with regard to viability of stuffing of container in the premises and submit a report to the jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner of Customs or as the case may be the Assistant Commissioner of Customs within 48 hours. The jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner of Customs or as the case may be the Assistant Commissioner of Customs shall forward the proposal, in this regard to the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs who would grant permission for self-sealing at the approved premises. Once the permission is granted, the exporter shall furnish only intimation to the jurisdictional Superintendent or Customs each time self-sealing is carried out at approved premises. The intimation, in this regard shall clearly mention the place and address of the approved premises, description of export goods and whether or not any incentive is being claimed.
- Where the visit report of the Superintendent or an Appraiser or an Inspector of Customs regarding viability of the stuffing at the factory/ premises is not favorable, the exporter shall bring the goods to the Container Freight Station /Inland Container Depot/Port for sealing purposes.
- Self-Sealing permission once given by a Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs shall be valid for export at all the customs stations. The customs formation granting the self-sealing permission shall circulate the permission along with GSTIN of the exporter to all Custom Houses/Station concerned.
- Transport document for movement of self-sealed container by an exporter from factory or warehouse shall be same as the transport document prescribed under the GST Laws. In the case of an exporter who is not a GST registrant, way bill or transport challan or lorry receipt shall be the transport document.
- The exporter shall seal the container with the tamper proof electronic-seal of standard specification. The electronic seal should have a unique number which should be declared in the Shipping Bill. Before sealing the container, the exporter shall feed the data such as name of the exporter, IEC code, GSTIN number, description of the goods, tax invoice number, name of the authorized signatory (for affixing the e-seal) and Shipping Bill number in the electronic seal. Thereafter, container shall be sealed with the same electronic seal before leaving the premises.
- The exporter intending to clear export goods on self-clearance (without employing a Customs Broker) shall file the Shipping Bill under digital signature.
- All consignments in self-sealed containers shall be subject to risk based criteria and intelligence, if any, for examination / inspection at the port of export. At the port/ICD as the case may be, the customs officer would verify the integrity of the electronic seals to check for tampering if any enroute. The Risk Management System (RMS) is being suitably revamped to improvise the interdiction/ examination norms. However, random or intelligence based selection of such containers for examination/scanning would continue.
The present circular lays down the procedure to be followed by the exporter while opting for self-sealing.
It is stated that all those exporters who were availing sealing at their factory premises under the system of supervised factory stuffing, will be automatically entitled for self-sealing. It said that exporters, who are currently operating the self-sealing procedure, need not seek permission from the concerned authorities.
It also prescribes the procedure for standard specification of the seal, application, record keeping and data retrieval system, in detail.
The procedures are applicable from 1st October 2017. Till then, the existing procedure will be continued.
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