The Custom Commissioner has issued the Public Notice Application of Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) for sealing and monitoring of goods to be deposited in Customs Bonded Warehouses.
“Attention of Importers, Customs Brokers, Warehouse licensees, members of trade and all other stakeholders is invited to the Warehouse (Custody & Handling of Goods) Regulations, 2016, the Special Warehouse (Custody & Handling of Goods) Regulations, 2016, Warehoused Goods (Removal) Regulations 2016, Manufacture and Other Operations in Warehouse (no. 2) Amendment Regulations, 2020, Manufacture and Other Operations in Special Warehouse Regulations, 2020 and circular 17/2016-Cus which prescribe the affixation of a one-time-lock for transport of goods to be deposited in a warehouse or removed there from,” the Public Notice said.
Circular 17/2016-Cus dated 14th May 2016 read with the regulations specifically prescribes that in case of removal of goods from a customs station for deposit into a warehouse, or moving from one bonded warehouse to another, the container or means of transport (closed trucks) should be affixed with a one-time-lock by the proper officer at the customs station and its serial number be endorsed upon the bill of entry for warehousing. transport document or the Form for movement of goods, as the case may be. The warehouse keeper is required to inspect the seal and when it is found intact, permit the goods to be unloaded at the warehouse.
A need has been felt to improve the present procedure since at present the process is completely manualand the seals are not capable of being continuously monitored, which leads to delays in the reconciliation of receipt of goods and closure of bonds.
A pilot project is envisaged by using Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) which consists of GPS-enabled high security seals and a blockchain technology based online module that seeks to address the above issues and bring in more efficiency, visibility, and monitoring capability. ECTS allows monitoring of movement of containers/vehicles on a real-time basis and provides immediate alerts, in case of any violations so that immediate action can be initiated.
The ECTS shall be procured by the Destination warehouse where the above mentioned goods will be stored after clearance from the ICD, Tughlakabad orby the importer at their own cost. Presently, ECTS services will be provided by M/s Transecur Telematics Private Limited. The importers and warehouses dealing with the above goods will get registered on the portal (www.transecur.com) of M/s Transecur Telematics Private Limited.
“Once ‘Out of charge’ is granted for the imported consignments, the details of the importer, destination warehouse, type of vehicle, vehicle number, container number and ECTS seal number will be furnished by the importer or his authorized representative along with the uploading of the copy of out of charge on the above mentioned portal at point no.6. The relevant details shall be validated by the customs officer at ICD, Tughlakabad. Then, the seal will be affixed by the customs officer and the vehicle will be allowed to move to the destination warehouse,” the Principal Commissioner of Customs added.
At the destination (bonded warehouse), the warehouse keeper will check whether the ECTS seal is intact and unseal the same. The details of seal number, date and time of movement from the source location, the date and time of entry in the destination location and the unsealing will be captured by the portal. A trip report will be generated thereafter, which can be seen by the customs officers, and by the stakeholders involved.. The trip report will serve as the proof of receipt of the goods. In case the ECTS seal is found to be tampered. customs will initiate investigative action, based on the alert generated.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan AdFree. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates.
