Procedure for grant of self-sealing permission to the exporters in GST regime consequent to CBEC Circular No.26/2017 -Customs dated 01.07.2017 and 36/2017-cus dated 28.08.2017 - Customs - Facility Intimation No. 03/2017

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF GST, CENTRAL EXCISE AND CUSTOMS, 6/7 ATD STREET, COIMBATORE 641 018. C. No. VIII/48/27/2017-Cus.Pol. Dated: 16.10.2017 Facility Intimation No. 03/2017 Sub: Procedure for grant of self-sealing permission to the exporters in GST regime consequent to CBEC Circular No.26/2017 -Customs dated 01.07.2017 and 36/2017-cus dated 28.08.2017, Reg. Attention of all Exporters/Customs Brokers/ Shipping agents/ Trade and Industry is invited to the Board's Circular No. 26/2017-Cuso dated 01.07.2017 and 36/2017-cus dated 28108.2017. 2. Board has issued various circulars both on the Excise and Customs side on the issue of sealing of containers. At present, there are three categories of export goods which arrive at the port/ICD: a. Containers stuffed at factory premises or warehouse under self-sealing procedure. b. Containers stuffed / sealed at factory premises or warehouse under Supervision of central excise officer. c. Containers stuffed and sealed at Container Freight Stations/Inland Container Depot. 3. For the sake of uniformity and ease of -doing business, Board has decided to simplify the procedure relating to factory stuffing hitherto carried out under the supervision of the Central Excise officers. It is the endeavour of the Board to create a trust based environment where compliance in accordance with the extant laws is ensured by strengthening Risk Management System and Intelligence setup of the department. Accordingly, Board has decided to lay down a simplified procedure for stuffing and sealing of export goods in containers. It has been decided to do away with the sealing of containers with export goods by CBEC officials. Instead, self-sealing procedure shall be followed subject to certain conditions. 4. In this regard, the procedure for seeking self-sealing permission of export containers is prescribed as follows: 4.1 The exporter shall :- 4.1.1 Inform the Superintendent of the concerned range about their arrangement to follow self-sealing procedure to export goods from the factory premises or warehouse at least 15 days before the first planned export along with necessary information as per format enclosed as Annexure 'A'. The exporter may contact the Jurisdictional Divisional office under whose jurisdiction the unit is located. 4.1.2 Be registered under the GST and should be filing GSTR1 and GSTR2 4.1.3 Submit therewith a list of persons, along with their specimen signatures (maximum three), who are authorized on behalf of the exporter to do the self-sealing and self- certification as per format enclosed as Annexure-'B'. 4.1.4 Submit copies of their identity proof (with photograph) and proof of address of each individual authorized signatory attested by the exporter along with a certificate of signature verification from any of the Scheduled Commercial Banks. (Copies of Bank Pass Book/Aadhaar Number would serve the purpose of proof of identity address). 4.1.5 Submit an attested copy of the I.E. Code issued by the- DGFT / GSTIN; 4.1.6 Submit copies of ownership documents of the premises/factory or rental/lease agreement where stuffing of the export goods into containers is to be done. 5. The intimation, along with its enclosures, will be received by the concerned jurisdictional Superintendent and a duly acknowledged copy returned to the exporter. The jurisdictional Superintendent shall inspect the premises with regard to the viability of stuffing of container in the premises and submit a report to the jurisdictional Deputy/ Assistant Commissioner of Division within 48 hours. 6. The Jurisdictional Deputy / Assistant Commissioner of the Division shall forward the proposal without any delay to the Commissioner of Customs and GST, Coimbatore who would consider granting permission of self-sealing of export containers at the required premises. 7. Self-Sealing permission once given by the Commissioner of Customs and GST, Coimbatore shall be valid for exports at all the customs stations. 8. Subsequently, the exporter shall intimate the shipment self-sealing particulars to the jurisdictional Superintendent one day in advance to the planned stuffing as per the format enclosed as Annexure C . 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. 9. 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. 10. Where the visit report of the Superintendent or an Inspector regarding viability or the stuffing at factory/premises is not favourable; the exporter shall bring the goods to the Container Freight Station / Inland Container Depot /port premises for export. 11. The exporters who were availing sealing at their factory premises under the system of supervised factory stuffing, will be automatically entitled for self-sealing procedure. All exporter A EOS will also be eligible for - self- sealing. All those exporters who are already operating under the self- sealing procedure need not approach the jurisdiction authorities for the self-sealing permission. However, exporters operating within the jurisdiction of Coimbatore Commisssionerate already under Self-sealing/ factory stuffing may inform the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioners with a copy to Asst. Commissioner, Customs Policy of the GST Commissionerate which of the following classes of exporters they belong to along with copy of the relevant permission obtained earlier. exporters who were already operating under self- sealing procedure; exporters who were permitted factory stuffing facility; and AEOs 12. The permission to self-seal the export goods from a particular premise, under the revised procedure, once granted shall be valid unless withdrawn by the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner or Commissioner of Custom and GST if non-compliance to law, rules and regulations is noticed. In case the exporter wants to make a change in the approved premise (s), then a fresh permission needs to be obtained before commencement of self-sealing at the new premises. 13. It is proposed to replace the bottle seals with Electronic seals. The exporter shall seal the container with the tamper proof electronic seal of standard specification. Under the new procedure, the exporter will be obligated to declare the physical serial number of the e-seal at the time of filing the online integrated shipping bill or in the case of manual shipping bill before the container is dispatched for the designated port/ ICD/LCS. Before sealing the container, the exporter shall feed the following data in the electronic seal. IE Code Shipping Bill N umber Shipping-Bill Date e-seal number Date of sealing Time of sealing Destination Customs Station for export Container number Trailer-Truck number in the electronic seal. It is further clarified that the information need not be mounted in the electronic seal but tagged to the seal using a 'web I mobile application' to be provided by the vendor of the REID seals. Data once uploaded by the exporter should not be capable of being overwritten or edited. 14. Exporters shall directly procure REID seals from vendors, conforming to the standard specification mentioned in para 16 below. Since the procedure seeks to enhance integrity of transportation of goods, the exporters will be required to obtain seals directly. They shall provide details such as IEC etc., at the time of purchase for identification as well as for using the standard web application necessary to support an REID self-sealing ecosystem. 15. In case, the RFID seals of the containers are found to be tampered with, then mandatory examination would be carried out by the Customs authorities. 16. Standard Specification of the Seal: a) The electronic seal referred to in Para 9 (vii) of the Circular No. 26/2017- Customs dated 01.07.2017 shall be an REID tamper proof one-time-bolt seal , each bearing a unique serial number. The exporters shall be responsible for procuring the seals at their own cost for use in self- sealing. b) Each seal shall be a one-time-bolt-seal bearing a unique serial number and brand of the vendor in the format ABeD XXXX XXXX, where ABCD stands for the brand of the vendor and X (8 digit) is a numerical digit from 0-9. c) The REID seal shall conform to ISO 17712:2013 (H) and ISOIIEC 18000-6 Class I Gen 2 which is globally accepted in industrial applications and can be read with the use of UHF (Le. 860 MHz to 960 MHz) Reader-Scanners. 17. 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 the 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. 18. The exporter intending to clear export goods on self-clearance (without employing a Customs Broker) shall file the Shipping Bill under digital signature. 19. 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 seals to check for tampering if any on enroute. However, random or intelligence based selection of such containers for examination/scanning would continue. 20. Examination norms as prescribed under Circular No. 6/ 2002-Cus., Dated 23.01.2002 (as amended) shall be applicable for all such consignments. 21. Any deviation from the procedure laid out in this Facility Notice or any violation under the Customs Act, 1962 and rules' and regulations made there under or any other law for the time being in force, will be viewed seriously which may result in withdrawal of the self- sealing facility accorded to the exporter and / or initiation of any other proceedings under the Customs Act, 1962 and rules and regulations made there under or any other laws for the time being in force. 22. The exporters who intent to avail self-sealing facility upto 31.10.2017 may apply to the Jurisdictional Range Office with all the documents as stated in this Facility Notice with a copy to Dy./Asst Commissioner , Custom Policy, GST Commissionerate Coimbatore. 23. From 1.11.2017, the Customs formation fall under the jurisdiction of Commissioner of Customs (Prev), Trichy. Accordingly trade is requested to co-ordinate with new jurisdiction for future correspondence. 24. Any difficulty, experienced in the implementation, may be brought to the notice of The Deputy/ Assistant Commissioner (Customs Policy) immediately. COMMISSIONER