Reply: The details are available at para 2.8 of the Handbook of Procedure Vol. 1 and is available at DGFT website http://dgft.gov.in.
US 26:
Report by the Secretariat (WT/TPR/S/249): III. TRADE POLICIES AND PRACTICES BY MEASURE: (2) Measures Directly Affecting Imports: (i) Customs procedures: Page 36, paragraph 9:
The report sets forth the six regimes for entry of imports and states that imports for home consumption may be cleared after payment of the duties and charges. Does the regime for home consumption provide for release of the goods upon provision of a guarantee where there is a delay in the final determination of the customs value of the goods, as required by Article 13 of the Customs Valuation Agreement (CVA)? If so, please indicate where in India's legislation this is set forth and provide additional details on the circumstances in which such release is authorized. How long must the "delay" be for Indian Customs to authorize such release? If India does not provide for such release, how does it implement CVA Article 13?
Reply: The regime for home consumption provides for release of the goods upon provision of a guarantee where there is a delay in the final determination of the customs value of the goods. Sometimes, it is not possible to finally determine the customs value of the goods due to non availability of some relevant information and/or documents. Withholding release of goods in such cases may cause hardship to the importers by way of payment of demurrage/detention charges, disturbance in production schedule and other financial losses. To meet such exigencies, provisions have been made in Section 18 of the Customs Act, 1962 (details may be viewed at www.cbec.gov.in) to assess the duty provisionally and to authorize release of the goods upon submission of a security by the importer pending final determination of the customs value.
No timeline has been laid down to measure the "delay" for the purpose of authorizing the release of goods. The Customs Valuation Agreement (CVA) does not provide any threshold to measure the "delay".
US 27:
Report by the Secretariat (WT/TPR/S/249): III. TRADE POLICIES AND PRACTICES BY MEASURE: (2) Measures Directly Affecting Imports: (i) Customs procedures: Page 37, paragraph 11:
Authorities report that 0.67 million registered IEC holders use EDI facilities. How many registered IEC holders are there in total?
