On June 8 2020, The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) launched a flagship programme, “Turant customs” at Bengaluru and Chennai with technological support for faster clearance of imported goods and for the ease of doing business. The start of Turant customs in Bengaluru and Chennai would be the beginning of the nationwide program and is expected to be completed by December 31, 2020.
Key Points:
i.Turant customs is a continuation reform for the pilot phase that was initiated in August 2019 at Chennai and later extended to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, and Visakhapatnam Customs Zones for select commodities.
Note: This reform resulted in improvement of India’s World Bank ranking for Trading Across Border Category of Doing Business Report from 146th position in 2017 to 68th position in 2019.
Turant Customs:
The first phase would include import of mechanical, electrical and electronics pieces of machinery at the ports/airports/ICDs (Inland Container Depots) of Bengaluru and Chennai.They will import only the items covered by “Chapter 84, 85 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975″.
Advantages of Turant Customs
i.It will eliminate routine interface with the Customs officers and provide uniform assessment across the country that would benefit the importers.
ii.Reduce transaction cost and eliminate the practice of port shopping for favourable assessments.
iii.It also provides a contactless and paperless custom clearance under the Turant customs. The custom duty would be faceless i.e done remotely and anonymously.
iv.The paperless transaction involves
- self-registration of goods by the importers in the system,
- Automated clearance of bills of entry
- Digitalization of bill entry
- Uploading documents on the ‘e-Sanchit’ platform
- All communication between the importer and customs officers would be done via the ICEGATE portal.
What is e-Sanchit Platform?
It is a step by step procedure (manual) platform for paperless processing by electronically uploading the documents.
What is ICE GATE?
Indian Customs Electronic Gateway (ICEGATE) is the national portal of Indian Customs of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) that provides e-filing services to the Trade, Cargo Carriers and other Trading Partners electronically.
About CBIC:
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (formerly Central Board of Excise & Customs) is a part of the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It deals with the tasks of formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of Customs, Central Excise duties, Central Goods & Services Tax and IGST, Narcotics, prevention of smuggling etc.
Chairman– M Ajit Kumar
