Customs - Payment of duty for warehousing u/s 49
SECTION 49 of the Customs Act reads as:
Section 49. Storage of imported goods in warehouse pending clearance. - Where in the case of any imported goods, whether dutiable or not, entered for home consumption, the Assistant Commissioner of Customs or Deputy Commissioner of Customs is satisfied on the application of the importer that the goods cannot be cleared within a reasonable time, the goods may, pending clearance, be permitted to be stored in a public warehouse, or in a private warehouse if facilities for deposit in a public warehouse are not available; but such goods shall not be deemed to be warehoused goods for the purposes of this Act, and accordingly the provisions of Chapter IX shall not apply to such goods.
Is the importer liable to pay duty on the goods permitted to be stored in the warehouse under Section 49?
In a recent meeting of the Permanent Trade Facilitation Committee of JN Customs, this issue was raised:
JNCH is insisting for payment of duty deposit for allowing bonding u/s 49 whereas plain reading of Section 49 does not prescribe any such condition. Section 49 involves storage of cargo in Customs Bonded Warehouses in case of dispute/testing requirement etc. during assessment stage. This helps the trade to avoid demurrage and detention charges. Hence bonding u/s 49 be permitted without insisting on duty deposit .
The Department replied:
The permission for warehousing under Section 49 is a temporary one and there is a specific exclusion of provisions covered under Chapter IX i.e. Warehousing procedures for goods warehoused under Section 49 and since the Govt. revenue is to be secured, the request for warehousing u/s 49 of fresh imports without payment of duty cannot be accepted. However, in the case of re-import in which mostly no duty payment is involved, request of the trade will be examined and a decision will be taken and intimated.
Permission for bonding u/s 59 pending test reports:
It was informed by the members of the Trade that completion of procedures including tests etc. in the case of imports under Warehousing Bill of Entry takes considerable time and the Customs are not assessing the Bill of Entry without the receipt of test reports etc. and are not allowing the bonding formalities.
The Department replied: "the matter involves certain legal issues, the same will be examined and a decision will be taken."
The Missing Bond:
The Trade informed that the manual entries in the Bond Registers take a lot of time and are mostly not available/traceable after a certain period of time and suggested to discontinue/dispense with, as whatever details needed are available in the system itself.
The Department replied, "the Bond is a legal document and explained the importance of maintaining such registers and stated that the registers are essentially required for monitoring/auditing purpose."