Circular No. 23/2013 - Customs
F.No.450/28/2011-Cus.IV
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Excise and Customs
***
New Delhi, Dated 24th June, 2013
To
All Chief Commissioners of Customs/Customs (Prev)
All Chief Commissisoner of Customs and Central Excise
All Commissioners of Customs/Customs (Prev)
All Commissioners of Customs and Central Excise
All Director Generals under CBEC
Sir/Madam
Sub: Introduction of Risk Management Systems (RMS) in Exports regarding.
Attention is invited to the Board Circular No.43/2005-Cus dated 24.11.2005
whereby Risk Management System (RMS) was introduced in Imports as a trade
facilitation measure and for selective interdiction of high risk consignments for Customs
control.
2. Implementation of RMS in Imports has been one of the most significant steps in
the ongoing Business Process Re-engineering initiative of the department. In continuation
of this initiative, the Board has now decided to introduce RMS in exports in Customs
locations where the Indian Customs EDI Systems (ICES) is operational. The RMS in
exports will enable low risk consignments to be cleared based on self assessment of the
declarations by exporters. This will enable the department to enhance the level of
facilitation and speed up the process of cargo clearance. By expediting the clearance of
compliant export cargo, the RMS for exports will contribute to reduction in dwell time,
thereby achieving the desired objective of reducing the transaction cost in order to make
the business internationally competitive. The RMS in Exports is scheduled for
implementation from 15.07.2013 onwards.
3. The RMS for exports is developed with the following components (i) ensuring
appropriate control measures for proper and speedy disbursement of drawback and other
export incentives (ii) effective utilization of human resources, to match the workload with
the resources available (iii) ensuring proper and expeditious implementation of existing
control over export under the applicable Allied Acts and Rules.
4 With the introduction of the RMS in exports, the present practice of routine
verification of self-assessment and examination of Shipping Bills will be discontinued
and the focus will be on quality assessment, examination and post clearance audit (PCA)
of Shipping Bills selected by the Risk Management System.
5. Shipping Bills filed electronically into ICES through the Service Centre or the
ICEGATE will be processed by RMS. The RMS will process the data through a series of
steps/corridors and produce an electronic output for the ICES. This output from RMS
will determine the flow of the Shipping Bill in ICES i.e. whether the Shipping Bill will be
taken up for Customs control (verification of self-assessment or examination or both) or
to be given "Let Export Order" directly after payment of Export duty (if any) without any
verification of self-assessment or examination. The RMS will also provide instructions
for Appraising Officer/Superintendent, Examining Officer/Inspector or the Let Export
Order (LEO) Officer, wherever necessary. The decisions communicated by the RMS on
the need for verification of self-assessment and/or examination and the appraising and
examination instructions communicated by the RMS have be followed by the field
formations. It is possible that in a few cases, the field formations might decide to apply a
particular treatment to the Shipping Bill which is at variance with the instructions
received for the RMS owing to risks which are not factored in the RMS. Such a course
of action shall however be taken only with the prior approval of the jurisdictional
Commissioner of Customs or an officer authorised by him for this purpose, who shall not
be below the rank of Addl./Joint Commissioner of Customs, and after recording the
reason for the same. A brief remark on the reasons and particulars of Commissioner's
authorization should be made by the officer examining the goods in the departmental
comments in the EDI system.
6. Board has decided to implement RMS in export in two phases. In the first phase
the RMS will process the data and provide the output to ICES only up to goods
examination stage. In the second phase, the RMS will also process the Shipping Bill data
after the Export general Manifest (EGM) is filed electronically and provide output to
ICES for selection of shipping Bills for Drawback scrutiny and Post Clearance Audit
(PCA).
7. With the implementation of export RMS, a Post Clearance Audit (PCA) function
will be introduced in respect of exports after the LEO is given for export consignment.
The objective of PCA is to monitor, maintain and enhance compliance levels, while
reducing the dwell time of cargo. The RMS will select the Shipping Bills for audit, after
issue of LEO, and these selected Shipping Bills will be directed to the audit officers for
scrutiny by the ICES. It may be noted that the auditors are specifically being instructed
to scrutinize declarations with reference to exports incentives, duty drawback and other
compliance requirements Wherever necessary, RMS will provide instructions for audit
Officers. In case any possible short levies or undue claim of export incentives are
noticed, the officer will issue a Consultative Letter setting out the ground for their views
to the exporters/CHAs. Audit Officers should also scrutinize declarations with reference
to data quality and advise the exporters/ CHAs suitably where the quality of their
declarations is found deficient. Such advise is expected to be followed and will be
monitored by the Local Risk Managers (LRM).
8 As in the case of Import, the national management of the Risk Management
systems shall be the responsibility of the Risk Management Division. There will be a
single Local Risk Manager (Admin) for a location for both import and export.
9. The implementation of RMS for exports will necessitate reorganization for staff.
Board desires the Chief Commissisoner of Customs to undertake a comprehensive re-
organization of the officers deployed for processing of Shipping Bills. The present
appraising facilities should be right-sized in tune with the quantum of Shipping Bills
coming for assessment. A separate PCA section needs to be created and sufficient staff
should be diverted to the Post Clearance Audit. The strength of the staff for examination
of cargo would also be required to be readjusted.
10. With the introduction of RMS in exports, the selection of Shipping Bills for
verification of Self-assessment and/or examination will be based on the output given by
RMS to ICES. Accordingly the examination and assessment norms contained in the
Board's Circulars No. 06/2002 Cus dated 23.01.2002, 01/2009-Cus dated 13.01.2009
and 28/2012-Customs dated 16.11.2012 would stand modified to that extent. However,
owing to some technical reasons if the RMS fails to provide output to ICES or RMS
output is not received at ICES end in time, the existing norms of assessment and
examination prescribed by the aforementioned circulars will be applicable.
11. To begain with, RMS in Exports will be introduced w.e.f. 15.7.2013 at ICD
Mulund and ICD Patparganj. With the implementation of RMS in exports the existing
facilitation scheme viz. Accelerated Clearance System vide Circular No.30/2003-Cus
dated 4.4.2003. would be phased out. As the deployment of the export RMS is likely to
take place in a phased manner across the ICES locations, the existing facilitation scheme
will continue to be operative in each Customs station until the operationalisation of the
export RMS at the station.
12. Board desires DG (Systems) to forward the detailed instruction/draft public notice
to field formation separately.
13. Any difficulty in implementation of these instructions should be brought notice of
the Board immediately.
Yours faithfully,
( R.P. Singh )
Director (Customs)
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