Why Physical Supervision of Exports by Central Excise Officers?
THE Vapi Commissioner's Facility Notice states, “the number of exporters opting for stuffing and sealing of export containers in presence of the Central Excise officers has substantially increased even though the facility of self-sealing has been extended to all the categories of manufacturer-exporters”.
Why is this so? After all, getting the exports supervised by the Central Excise officers is a costly affair for the manufacturer-exporters. In almost all Commissionerates, the officer supervising the export has to be provided a car and this he keeps for the whole day. Further, the Inspector and the Superintendent are paid hard cash apart from the MOT paid to the Government (That's why those posts are sensitive). Why should any sane exporter go through this torture?
There is a STRONG reason. It is cheaper to get the containers examined by the Central Excise officers than to get them done by the Customs officers at the ports. Normally containers examined and sealed by Central Excise officers are not subject to further examination by the Customs at the ports. But should that happen, the exporter would see hell.
Therefore, it is a matter of pure economics – Customs more expensive than Central Excise! The Board had in Circular No. 934/2010-Cx dated 25.08.2010, stated, “it has been suggested to the Board that in order to reduce transaction cost involved in factory stuffing inspection by Central Excise officers scheduling factory stuffing permission should be provided on line by the department. This suggestion has been accepted by the department”.
See this is how the field implements the Board instructions.
Please also see