Poor Quality of Data in Electronic Bill of Entry

By Vijay Kumar

IN a recent meeting of the Trade Facilitation Committee in JN Customs, the Commissioner informed that poor data quality particularly "description column" while filing electronic Bills of Entry, is one of the reasons hindering increasing facilitation level. He further stated that there are certain details like, Invoice Number, SVB Order No., LC No., Exhibition Goods, COO, C.Ex. Registration No., Brand Name etc are found mentioned in the "description column" of the Bills of Entry, instead of proper description of goods. The incorrect/improper/insufficient description often leads to increased queries resulting in increased dwell time. Therefore, it was emphasised that proper and appropriate description of goods in the Bill of Entry is essential requirement.

In response to the above, the trade replied that there are certain reasons for mentioning these unwanted details in the description column.

1. Sometimes these details are not available on Assessing Officer's Screen. For ease of verification of assessment, these details are entered in the description column.

2. Some Importers insist on the same as the final print of Bill of Entry does not contain these details, however, the importer need these details at various levels like before VAT authorities, C.Ex. etc.

3. Sometimes UQC mentioned in import invoice are not similar as per the Indian Customs Tariff. Since system accepts the Bill of Entry when the UQC is mentioned as per Tariff, for correlation between quantity mentioned in import invoice and final Print of Bill of Entry, details of quantity mentioned in import invoice is being mentioned in the description column, while filing Bill of Entry.

The Commissioner directed that EDI section will examine the feasibility for a specific place, may be in a window on last page of Bill of Entry where these details should be reflected on final printout of the Bill of Entry or in a separate “Remark” column.