CBIC issued Custom Manual 2025 updated till 01.02.2025

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has issued Custom Manual 2025 updated till 01.02.2025.

CBIC or the Board, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India deals with the formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of Customs, Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Central Excise duties, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to Customs, Goods and Services Tax (GST), Central Excise, and Narcotics to the extent under CBIC’s purview.

The Board is the administrative authority for its subordinate organizations, including Customs Houses, Customs Preventive Commission rates, Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Commission rates and the Central Revenues Control Laboratory.

The Customs Manual 2025 includes 36 chapters that cover various areas of customs functions and procedures. It begins with an overview of customs functions, followed by procedures for conveyance arrival and import/export clearance. The manual dives into faceless assessment and classification of goods, such as project imports, baggage, and postal imports. Customs valuation and provisional assessment procedures are also described.

Overview of Customs Functions

The important Customs related functions include the following:

(a) Collection of Customs duties on imports and exports as per the Customs Act, 1962 and the Customs Tariff Act, 1975;

(b) Enforcement of various provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 governing imports and exports of cargo, baggage, postal articles and arrival and departure of vessels, aircrafts etc.;

(c) Discharge of agency functions and enforcing prohibitions and restrictions on imports and exports under various legal enactments;

(d) Prevention of smuggling including interdiction of narcotics drug trafficking; and

(e) International passenger clearance.

Customs functions cover substantial areas of activities involving international passengers, general public, importers, exporters, traders, custodians, manufacturers, carriers, port and airport authorities, postal authorities and various other government and semi-government agencies, banks etc.

Customs is continuously rationalizing and modernizing its procedures through adoption of EDI and global best practices. Also, as a member of the World Customs Organization, Indian Customs has adopted various International Customs Conventions and procedures including the Revised Kyoto Convention, Harmonized Classification System, GATT based valuation etc.

Statutory Provisions for Levy of Customs Duty

Entry No. 83 of List 1 to Schedule VII of the Constitution empowers the Union Government to legislate and collect duties on imports and exports. Accordingly, the Customs Act, 1962, effective from 01.02.1963 provides vide its Section 12 for the levy of duties on goods imported into or exported from India. The items and the rates of duties leviable thereon are specified in two Schedules to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The First Schedule specifies the various import items in systematic and well considered categories, in accordance with an international 9 scheme of classification of internationally traded goods known as “Harmonized System of Commodity Classification” and specifies the rates of import duties thereon, as prescribed by the legislature.

The duties on imported items are usually levied either on specific or ad- valorem basis, but in few cases specific cum-ad-valorem duties are also levied. The Second Schedule incorporates itemsthat are subject to exports duties and the rates of duties thereof.

The predominant mode of levy of duties is on ad-valorem basis i.e., with reference to value. For this purpose, the value of the imported goods is required to be determined as per Section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962 read with the Customs Valuation (Determination of Value of Imported Goods) Rules, 2007. These provisions are essentially the adoption of GATT based valuation system (now termed WTO Valuation Agreement) which is being followed globally.

Likewise, the value of export goods is required to be determined as per provisions of Section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962 read with the Customs Valuation (Determination of Value of Export Goods) Rules, 2007.

Ease of Doing Business

Board has initiated numerous measures to facilitate the Customs clearance process and reduce transaction costs. The objective is to make the Customs clearance process in India a world class experience by reducing dwell time of cargo, which in turn improves the competitiveness of businesses. Some of these measures are presently work in progress and their present importance is in the fact that these highlight the approach of the Board towards ensuring the ease of doing business.

Paperless Initiatives

1. Single Window: An Indian Customs Single Window Project has begun with the establishment of an appropriate administrative structure in the form of an inter-ministerial Steering Group that is chaired by Member (Customs), CBIC, a Project Management Group in CBIC and Project Management Units in the Ministries. With the introduction of Single Window, an electronic online message exchange between the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the Department of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage (PQIS) with the Customs has started, which enables reducing the dwell time considerably. Under this online message exchange system for import goods there is seamless online exchange in real time of the Customs Bill of Entry (Import declaration) with these agencies and Release Order (RO) from both the agencies will be received by the Customs in electronic message format.

2. IGM /SMTP: Taking into account the requirement of Customs as well the fact that an electronic version of IGM is already available, Board has decided that the number of hard copies of IGM to be submitted by shipping lines / steamer agents at a Customs House shall be restricted to 2 (two) only. Further, the steamer agent has the option to (a) give a continuity bond and (b) merge the guarantee with the continuity bond, which would reduce the number of required documents to 1 (one) only and the periodicity (of submission) would also get reduced drastically. Also, it is decided that only 1 (one) copy of SMTP would be sufficient for the Customs at ICDs. Finally, no separate permission is required from jurisdictional Customs in case of change of mode of transshipment under the Goods Imported (Conditions of Transshipment) Regulations, 1995. However, the carrier is required to intimate the change to the jurisdictional Commissioner of Customs who will ensure the bond covers both modes of transport.

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