NEW DELHI: India’s Central Board of Excise and Customs has issued a circular regarding the extension of 24/7 Customs clearance facility to more airports for all export goods and to seaports for specified import and export goods here the other day.
This was the promise made by Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget 2014-15 speech in the beginning of July 2014.
He had said that exports could not be increased unless all stakeholders played an active role in export promotion by providing good infrastructure and full facilitation.
“It will be our endeavor to engage with the states to take India’s exports to a higher growth trajectory. It is proposed to establish an Export promotion Mission to bring all stakeholders under one umbrella,” he had said.
To reduce transaction costs, improve business competitiveness and hasten the clearance of import and export cargo, measures were being initiated to extend the existing 24/7 customs clearance facility to more airports for all exports.
The 24/7 Customs clearance for specified imports and exports is now available at 17 air cargo complexes: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Cochin, Calicut, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nashik, Thiruvananthapuram and Vishakapatnam. Along with the airports, 18 seaports too have now received the facility.
Incidentally, the move to keep Customs open 24/7 was started way back in September 2012 at four international air cargo complexes: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.
Later, in June 2013, the order was extended to cover 13 more air cargo complexes.
The circular pointed out that the Board had undertaken detailed inter-ministerial consultations to ensure participation of all stakeholders to make the 24/7 Customs clearance facility available.
“The objective is to ensure that besides the Customs, the officers of all agencies concerned with the import/export process including custodians, Customs Brokers, etc. proactively participate in making this facility a success.
“As a result, all agencies are now committed to work hand in hand with the Customs to make available this facility . . . It is expected that an effective 24/7 Customs clearance facility will greatly facilitate trade and reduce transaction cost.”
