CBIC released Custom Manual 2023

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC) has released Custom Manual 2023.

Overview of Customs Functions

Introduction

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (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 Service Tax (GST) and Central Excise duties, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to Customs, Goods and Service Tax (GST), Central Excise, and Narcotics to the extent under CBIC’s purview. The Board is the administrative authority for its subordinate organizations, including Custom Houses, Customs Preventive Commissionerates, Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) Commissionerates and the Central Revenues Control Laboratory.

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 1-2-1963 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 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 items that 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.

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