CBIC launches Turant Customs for faceless clearance of imported goods

Under the programme, importers could now get their goods cleared from Customs after a faceless assessment done remotely by the Customs officers located outside the port of import. So, the goods imported at Chennai may be assessed by the Customs officers located at Bengaluru and vice versa, as assigned by the Customs' automated system.

The start of Turant Customs at Bengaluru and at Chennai would be the first phase of the All India roll out which would get completed by December 31 this year.

The first phase would cover imports of mechanical, electrical and electronics machineries at the ports/airports/ICDs of Bengaluru and Chennai.

CBIC said that Turant Customs would benefit the importers by eliminating routine interface with the Customs officers and providing uniformity in assessment across the country. This would reduce transaction costs and eliminate the practice of port shopping for favourable assessments.

Under the umbrella of Turant Customs, the CBIC promises the trade a faceless, contactless and paperless Customs clearance experience. While the assessment of Customs duty would be faceless, i.e., it would be done anonymously and remotely, critical steps in the process have been made contactless and paperless, CBIC said in a statement.

The indirect tax board also said that these steps include self-registration of goods on the system by importers, automated clearances of bills of entry, digitization of bill of entry, paperless processing by uploading documents on the electronic e-Sanchit platform, etc. Also, all communications between importers and Customs officers would be done electronically through the ICEGATE portal.

The launch of Turant Customs marks the culmination of a long pilot phase started in August 2019 at Chennai and later extended to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, and Visakhapatnam Customs Zones for select commodities.

Turant Customs is a mega reform for the ease of doing business. It is a continuation of the reform journey that CBIC embarked on few years back, resulting in India's ranking in the World Banks' Trading Across Border category of the Doing Business Report improving rapidly from position at 146 in 2017 to 68 last year, the statement said.