DDT 73 - 14-03-2005 asked, Hazira appointed a Customs port – What about Vizag?
As per section 7 of the Customs Act, the Board can appoint customs ports which alone shall be the Customs ports for imports and exports. By Notification No. 62/94-CUSTOMS (N.T.), dated the 21st November, 1994, several ports have been appointed. Now Hazira(Surat) is added to the list. But this notification No. 62/94 has been giving me the jitters for the past decade. Sl. No. 2 of the table to the Notification is as follows:-
TABLE
S. No. | STATE/UNION TERRITORY | PORT | PURPOSE |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) |
2. | Andhra Pradesh | (1) Kakinada | Unloading of Petroleum Products and Loading of export goods or any class of such goods. |
(2) Krishnapatnam | Unloading of imported goods and loading of export goods or any class of such goods. | ||
(3) Masulipatnam | Loading of export goods or any class of such goods. | ||
(4) Vishakapatnam | Loading of export goods or any class of such goods. |
So the two very important ports in Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam and Kakinada are not really full-fledged ports.
Kakinada is only for loading of export goods and unloading of only Petroleum products. And the largest operating port in India, Visakhapatnam, as per this notification is only for export. That is ‘no import’ from either port, except of course Petroleum products in Kakinada. The notification specifies several ports like Kandla, Mangalore, Cochin, Nhava Seva, Paradeep, Madras. And all these ports are for the purposes of “Unloading of imported goods and loading of export goods or any class of such goods.” Why then the difference for Visakhapatnam and Kakinada? Beats me! Of course there is another Notification which is not yet rescinded - Notification No. 77 – cus dated 19.5.1973, which also appoints Visakhapatnam and Kakinada as ports but only for the shipment and loading of goods.
So, as per the law, imported goods cannot be unloaded at Visakhapatnam and imported goods other than Petroleum products cannot be unloaded at Kakinada. But I have personal knowledge that imported goods are being unloaded at both these ports for any number of years.
It is a genuine doubt that I have been carrying for the last decade or so as to why these ports are not declared as ports for unloading imported goods and how they have functioned as import ports all these years. In the beginning, I was afraid to ask; May be I would be considered a stupid fool to ask such elementary questions. Slowly I took courage and started asking people. My colleagues in Central Excise were of no help. I asked friends in Customs. They were more helpless. “It should be somewhere, search and thou shalt find”, said many. I searched and found – nothing. Can somebody help in solving this mystery?