Customs - On-site Post Clearance Audit (OSPCA) - CBEC Chairman Allays Apprehensions
THE ‘self assessment' introduced in the Finance Act 2011, will bring unwelcome Customs auditors into the premises of the importers and exporters. The Trade has several apprehensions - after all a Government officer is not a very welcome person into your premises, more so an auditor with a magnifying glass to look for faults. Exporters and Importers have expressed fears that this will escalate their costs and more than money, what worries them is the likely harassment and waste of time and energy, especially for the small business units who do not have qualified accounting staff. What they don't understand is as to why they should suffer this intrusive audit, when officers can check all their documents at the port itself and leave them alone after the export or import is completed. After all their interaction with Government Inspectors has not always been anywhere near pleasant.
The Delhi Exporters Association had written a letter to the Chairman, CBEC on this issue.
In a letter to the Association President SP Agarwal, the CBEC Chairman states,
At the outset, I would like to inform you categorically that for the present the scheme will not be applied to exporters.
OSPCA will be implemented in a phased manner beginning only with importers who avail the Accredited Clients Programme (ACP). Other categories of importers would be covered in subsequent phases but even then, taking into account administrative costs of conducting OSPCA and the nature and size of the business it is not intended to cover all importers and the present Customs House Audit shall continue side-by-side with OSPCA.
OSPCA would require an effective Risk Management Systems (RMS) as an essential prerequisite, which is so far not even introduced on the export side.
OSPCA is a globally preferred mechanism to provide greater Customs facilitation in terms of faster clearances to the trading community while at the same time ensuring compliance of the legal provisions. This also allows the development of simplified Customs procedures for such traders.
Another advantage offered by OSPCA is a single point audit combining Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax. It is in this background that in like manner of other Customs administrations, the Indian Customs has proposed to implement OSPCA. This is one vision of Customs, which would take some more time and background preparation for implementation on the export side. The Chambers of Trade & Industry would be definitely consulted before its implementation on export side.
The Chairman expected this would set at rest their concerns that OSPCCA will cause any inconvenience or hardship to the exporting community.