Draft 'Manifest (Vessels) and condition of transshipment, transportation of goods through foreign territory' Regulations, 2016
THE CBEC has placed in public domain the Draft 'Manifest (Vessels) and condition of transshipment, transportation of goods through foreign territory' Regulations, 2016.
Sea transportation has always been the main mode of transport in the international trade of merchandise goods but over the years it also started playing the significant role in coastal trade. For the compliance of legal requirements under the Customs Act or other Acts, different sets of regulations, circulars, instructions such as Import manifest (vessels) Regulations, 1971, Export Manifest (Vessels) Regulations, 1976, Transportation of Goods (through foreign territory) Regulations, 1965, Import goods (Condition of Transshipment) Regulation, 1995 etc. regulate different kinds of declaration, bonds, bank guarantees and other legal requirements. Although these regulations/instructions have been amended from time to time, a need has been felt to come up with an integrated regulation which would enable simplification and automation and bring it in line with international practices.
The purpose of these draft regulations is to provide a comprehensive framework covering all the aspects of movement of cargo including coastal cargo in line with the best international practices. It would provide a simplified and system based platform for all the stakeholders to comply with domestic legal requirements. Further, it would provide a system of ensuring safe and secure transit of the import and export goods within the country by way of IT backed tracking mechanism. Furthermore, it would also provide a procedure for multimodal transshipment completely operational on IT system.
For a long period, there is a growing demand for allowing coastal trade movement from east coast to west coast transiting through foreign territory or foreign port or from eastern part of country to north east India. The proposed regulations would also provide a simplified procedure for such movements.
The Draft 'Manifest (Vessels) and condition of transshipment, transportation of goods through foreign territory' Regulations, 2016 are placed in public domain so as to invite valuable inputs and comments. The feedback/inputs/comments may be mailed to dircus@nic.in or piyush.bhardwaj@gov.in till 09.12.2016.