Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has issued Circular No.55¬¬/2020 – Customs dated 17th December, 2020 to provide clarifications on the issues raised by stakeholders on Faceless Assessment.
Following instructions/ guidelines has been issued so as to smoothen the process of Faceless Assessment –
a. Re-assessment in accordance with the Principles of Natural Justice – In order to put the practices in conformity with the provisions of law since the importers are not being afforded an opportunity of being heard before re-assessment of the goods. It is therefore emphasised that the process of reassessment must be in accordance with the provisions under Customs Act, 1962. Hence, in order to lend clarity and streamline this process, the procedure to be adopted by the Faceless Assessments Groups (FAGs) for carrying out re-assessment, wherever required has been described.
b. Complete description of the imported goods -The importers/Customs Brokers are advised to give the complete description of the imported goods while filing the Bill of Entry, in the first instance. In this context, the attention of the importers/Customs Brokers may be drawn to the following fields that are available in the electronic Bill of Entry format:
i. Generic Description : The description in generic text relevant to text provided in the duty exemption notification that is claimed/Anti-Dumping (ADD)/IGST levy, as applicable.
ii. Specific Description: The description specific to the product and as given in the invoice, trade name or specific product details to be provided (Brand name or model details may be avoided-same needs to be provided separately)
iii. Model and Brand Name: Model details and Brand Name may be provided and if the imported goods are unbranded, the text “UNBRANDED” may be used.
iv. Supplier and Manufacturer Details : In cases where duty applicability is based on manufacturers such as Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD), Safeguard Duty (SD) etc, the details of manufacturer may be provided. In case of products attracting ADD, these details would be required to be mandatorily provided
v. Item Qualifiers: Some imported items may have specific distinguishing characteristics or have industry specific names (e.g. scientific names, IUPAC names etc.). These item names or qualifiers may be declared, as applicable. The illustrative list of such item qualifiers are at Annexure A. DG Systems, CBIC would shortly issue a detailed advisory for guidance of the trade, in this regard.
vi. Previous Bills of Entry : The Bill(s) of Entry details of previous import may be mentioned, if available.
c. Document codes for regular documents to be uploaded in e-Sanchit: Board has decided that w.e.f. 15th day of January, 2021, the supporting documents which are required to justify their claim of a duty exemption notification or fulfilment of a CCR requirement etc. along with the Bills of Entry shall be mandatorily required to be uploaded in e-Sanchit by the importers/Customs Brokers. The illustrative list of the required documents along with their document code and description is at Annexure B. DG Systems, CBIC would shortly issue a detailed advisory for guidance of the trade, in this regard.
For further details, please refer the attached document.
Source : Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC)
