Filing of incomplete or incorrect Import Manifest- invariable penalty
AN important amendment to the Customs Act made by Finance Act 2003 effective from 14 – 5- 2003 went almost un- noticed. As per the old Section 30, the person in charge was required to file an import manifest/report within twenty four hours after arrival in a customs station in the case of vessels and within twelve hours in the case of aircraft or vehicle. In the case of vessel or aircraft this could be filed even before the arrival. There was no penal provision for contravening this section and any violation had to be dealt with under Section 117 which provided for a maximum penalty of ten thousand rupees for contraventions not covered in the other sections.
Section 30 was amended by Finance Act 2003 to provide for
1. Filing of the manifest by any other person specified by the Government by notification
2. Mandatory filing of manifest before the arrival of the vessel or aircraft and within twelve hours after arrival in the case of vehicles.
3. A penalty up to fifty thousand rupees for contravention.
The Board was not really ready to implement this and it was postponed till May 2004. Board’s F.No.450/118/2004-CusIV dated 31.12.2004 required that penalty should invariably be administered in cases of failure to file the IGM in advance. The Board letter also suggested an adjudication without a written Show Cause Notice and reply.
Obviously even this is not having the required effect and Board has realised that incomplete and incorrect manifests are being filed. The practice seems to be to file some Manifest and carry out amendments later and importers are duly penalized for amendments and subsequent amendments. Now the Board wants to curb this practice of amending the manifest even with a penalty. Board recognizes two types of amendments. The Major amendments are addition of extra entry, change in quantity and change in the date of Bill of Lading, Change in the Name of the importer, Commodity description etc,.. The other amendments like correcting spelling mistakes or changing the unit of quantity are treated as minor amendments. The Board is prepared to condone the minor amendments, but if major amendments are not carried out before the prescribed time limit, penalty is to be invariably administered expeditiously , even by waiving the Show Cause Notice and Reply –
Board Circular No.13/05/Cus dated 11-3-2005.