The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), under Department of Revenue, India’s Ministry of Finance, has issued a circular announcing extension of 24x7 Customs clearance facility at 13 more airports in respect of all export goods and at 14 more sea ports in respect of specified import and export goods.
“Board has decided that with effect from 31.12.2014 the facility of 24x7 Customs clearance for specified imports viz goods covered by ‘facilitated’ Bills of Entry and specified exports viz factory stuffed containers and goods exported under free Shipping Bills will be made available, at 18 sea ports,” CBEC said in its circular.
The sea ports are: Chennai, Cochin, Ennore, Gopalpur, JNPT, Kakinada, Kandla, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Marmagoa, Mundra, Okha, Paradeep, Pipavav, Sikka, Tuticorin, and Vishakapatnam.
“Board has also decided that with effect from 31.12.2014 the facility of 24x7 Customs clearance for specified imports viz goods covered by facilitated Bills of Entry and all exports viz goods covered by all Shipping Bills will be made available, at 17 air cargo complexes,” the circular said.
The 17 complexes are: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Cochin, Calicut, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nashik, Thiruanantapuram, and Vishakapatnam.
CBEC said related issues such as availability of required personnel, keeping open the delivery gates 24x7 at air cargo complexes etc have been resolved.
“It is expected that an effective 24x7 Customs clearance facility will greatly facilitate trade and reduce transaction cost,” the circular said. Welcoming the CBEC circular Tirupur Exporters’ Association president A Sakthivel said, “This will certainly help enhance the sector’s (knitwear’s) competitiveness in the global market.” (RKS)
