Custom-built to please

Raja Simhan T.E.

ASSOCIATING a government arm with efficiency and speed is a difficult task. But, it is highly tempting to do so when it comes to Chennai's Custom House.

Prior to computerisation, regular ''clients'' of the Custom House could be caught thinking, ''How long will it take there? What problems will I have to face? Once I submit the form, how will I track the document?''

Today, it's different. It does not take more than a few minutes to file a document - which can be a shipping bill (a document filed at the Custom House to initiate cargo export formalities) or Bills of Entry (a document filed at the Custom House to initiate cargo import formalities). Tracking has been made easy. Through the department's Web site (www.chennaicustoms.org), one can get the latest information on the status of the papers. The site reportedly attracts over 600 unique visitors every day.

eWorld did a follow-up on the service and how its users feel about it. Here's the response it evoked:

What does Ganapathy, a Chennai Custom House agent (CHA), have to say about filing a document today at the Custom House? His response, ''today, there is no delay at all. Five years ago, I used to bring my lunch to the Custom House while waiting for the documents to be cleared. After filing the documents I would physically track the movement of the papers from one official to another, a Herculean task.''

Says B.S.V. Murthy, Additional Commissioner of Customs, ''Till 1996, the process of filing of bills of entry (Bs/E) and shipping bills (S/Bs) was manual till the stage of collecting duty and clearance of goods. In 1996, a pilot project was undertaken for online processing.'' In these five years, the Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange System's (ICES) complete processing of Bs/E and S/Bs has been extended to all major ports of the country and a large number of minor ports, totalling 23, he says.

Goodbye to delay

The highlight is that documents are received and processed electronically. This has resulted in faster Customs clearance with very little paper documentation, involving very few processing stages.

In September, 10,411 Bs/E were filed at the Chennai Custom House. Of this, 72 per cent were filed through ICES and the rest manually. Similarly, out of 14,713 S/Bs filed, 10,947 were processed through ICES. The manual processing still continues, because the existing software is not yet compatible with various schemes that have been introduced since its inception.

Says Joseph Dominic, Commissioner of Customs (Seaport), ''through computerisation and ICES, information is available not only to department officers, but also to the trade. This was impossible five years ago.'' The system also enables senior officers to monitor queries raised on the importers and exporters when they file the documents, enables them to cut down on unnecessary queries and to speed up the assessment, he says.

No cheating

Another big advantage of the whole system is generation of huge bytes of data. In the days of manual handling, if a piece of data was required, it would be days before you got it, and the officer concerned needed to retrieve it from a pile of papers. Today, thanks to computerisation, data can be retrieved immediately, he says.

The instant retrieval of data comes handy for the department checking the value of cargo. Unlike in the past, a shipper cannot manipulate the value of the cargo by under-invoice or jack up the prices. ''Tracing this was impossible five years ago, and shippers often cheated the department,'' he says.

On transparency, Dominic says that in the past, one had to run from one desk to another to know the status of the papers. Today, the status of a document - with which officer do the papers lie, why is there delay in clearance and what is the query - can be ascertained from the department's Web site.

Networking helps

According to another CHA, another area of improved efficiency was on drawback - an incentive given to an exporter to claim the duty suffered on the material used for export which could be excise or customs. Under the manual procedure, it used to take months for drawback claims.

However, after computerisation, the drawback became a possibility in weeks, a month in some cases and there are instances of settlement in days also.

Further, in the manual system, the drawback cheque was collected from the customs by the exporter or its authorised representatives, while in computerisation the drawback is automatically remitted to the exporters account with the nominated bank.

ICES has inter-linked all the major Custom Houses in the country, making it easy to exchange data. For instance, if a piece of sensitive cargo is arriving for the first time through the Chennai port, the department officials here can immediately verify details like whether such cargo came through any other port and what the price was.

This was unthinkable a few years ago. The officials here had to write to Mumbai or Delhi and wait for days to get a reply, and the document would not be released till then. Further, documents would be released with 10-15 per cent additional charges, the agent says.

''We find ICES has brought down the time for document processing by 25-30 per cent, since most papers are automatically processed without much human intervention,'' he says.5

raja@thehindu.co.in

Utopia within reach

While the ICES has been a good start for the Chennai Custom House, in the long run it should be possible (electronically) to limit the number of messages or documents to even one, for the entire process of transactions in the course of foreign trade.

Typically, the steamer agents will file manifest (a list presented by shipping agents containing cargo details and the importer) with the Customs electronically. This will also be used by the Port Trust. CHAs/importers will file Bs/E or S/B electronically with the Customs which would cover more data so that Port Trusts, container freight stations (CFSs), transport and sales tax authorities can use the same.

The Certification of Licence (various government agencies issue this licence to shippers while importing/exporting cargoes) will also be available online once EDI connectivity is established with various agencies when electronic fund transfers (EDI for banks) are established. Importers and exporters can also make payments without drafts or coming to the nodal bank for the purpose and can receive their refund drawback payment directly to their respective accounts.

Once VSAT connectivity is established with all Customs/Excise centres, all modvat verifications, end-use certificate and re-warehousing certificate for transfer bonds can be made immediately. Above all, there will be uniformity in assessment decisions across India, say officials.

Says B.S.V. Murthy, Additional Commissioner of Customs, the Customs department is in the process of setting up ICENET (Indian Customs and Excise Network). This will enable the trade to file Bs/E and S/Bs with the department from their own premises.

The Chennai Customs has also introduced a system whereby queries relating to drawback can be sent to trade members by e- mail.

Please e-mail us at eworld@thehindu.co.in if you have queries on computer usage or if you find an interesting way of using the computer.