The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has notified that the digitization of Customs Bonded Warehouse procedure relating to obtaining Warehouse License, Bond to Bond Movement of warehoused goods, and uploading of Monthly Returns.
The Board with the objective to facilitate ease of doing business in respect of the Customs Bonded Warehouses, introduced a Warehouse Module on ICEGATE to enable online filing of application for obtaining a Warehouse Licence; online submission and processing of requests for transfer of warehoused goods to another person and/or other warehouse and uploading Monthly returns for the Customs Bonded Warehouse.
The Public Warehouse Licensing Regulations, 2016, the Private Warehouse Licensing Regulations, 2016 and the Special Warehouse Licensing Regulations, 2016 provide for licensing of Public, Private and Special Warehouses under Section 57, 58 and 58A of the Customs Act, 1962, respectively. The Circular 2612016-Customs dated 09.06.2016, as amended, prescribes an application Form for obtaining a licence for a Customs Bonded Warehouse.
The process has now been digitised in which the authorised signatory of an applicant can log in to the ICEGATE portal and submit the application online along with accompanying documents. The application once submitted would be received by the proper officer linked to the Customs jurisdiction filed by the applicant. The application will then be processed by Customs in the back-end.
The Warehouse module shall enable uploading scanned copies (in PDF format) of these Monthly Returns on ICEGATE. Also, corresponding officers would be able to download these scanned documents for necessary action at their end. The Warehouse owner/authorised representatives should carefully file the details in their monthly return so as to enable proper reconciliation of warehoused goods.
The users of the Warehouse Module i.e. trade and officers alike, are requested to go through the User Manuals issued in this regard to familiarise themselves with the necessary steps to be followed. The User Manuals serve as a guide that depicts all stages in an easy- to-understand manner aided by screenshots/pictures of the module interface. This is meant to handhold the users through the different stages of the processes.
Regulation 3 of the Warehouse Goods (Removal) Regulations, 2016 prescribes a physical Form for transfer of goods from one warehouse to another warehouse. The Form provides for recording of physical despatch of goods from the originating warehouse and recording of physical receipt of goods at the destination warehouse. The said recordings are required to be signed by the licensee or the bond officer, as the case may be. While the module on ICEGATE will capture all relevant transaction details in the ICES database, the aforesaid physical Form will also be used to monitor and close physical movement of goods. The said physical Form will be integrated with the module in due course. Till such time, it shall continue to be in force and is required to be filled manually in addition to the online modality provided by the module.
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Applicants/Authorised Signatories/Licensees facing any difficulties in the access or use of the Warehouse Module can email their grievance to icegatehelpdesk@icegate.gov in for suitable redressal. Customs officers facing similar issues may email it to saksham.seva@icegate.gov in for expeditious resolution.
Chief Commissioners of Customs are directed to issue necessary Public Notices to specifo the port code(s) as envisaged atPara2.l.3 above as well as assist in on boarding members of the trade and other users onto the Warehouse Module on ICEGATE.
Circular No. I 9/2024-Customs
Date: 30/09/2024
