Office of the Commissioner of Customs, Kandla,

Custom House, Near Balaji Temple, Kandla (Kachchh).

PUBLIC NOTICE NO: 23/2010

Subject: Implementation of Indian Customs EDI System 1.5 (ICES 1.5) at CH, Kandla -regarding.

Attention of the Importers, Exporters, CHAs, trade and all other agencies concerned is invited to the following Public Notices issued by the Commissioner of Customs, Kandla regarding computerised processing of Export/ Import documents under Indian Customs EDI system, and subsequent public notices issued from time to time, including:

Imports:-

Public Notice No. 18/2004

Exports:-

Public Notice No. 17/2004

1. Currently, ICES operations at CH, Kandla are being implemented on a standalone system on which LAN based connectivity has been provided to concerned Customs officers, Service Centres and State Bank of India. The system is being managed by officials from the National Informatics Centre

2. As part of the implementation of CBEC's IT Consolidation Project, the EDI operations at CH, Kandla would be shifted to ICES 1.5, an enhanced/ modified version of the application software currently operational at several places. This software, developed by NIC, would be implemented at CBEC's National Data Centre at New Delhi. The System Integrator for the project is M/s TCS. The application would cater to the needs of Customs officials at CH, Mundra, as also the Service Centre operators, who would be working on CBEC's new Local Area Network infrastructure implemented by M/s HP Sales India Private Ltd. Connectivity to the Central servers at the National Data Centre has been provided through CBEC's MPLS network, as part of the Wide Area Networking project implemented by a consortium led by M/s BSNL Ltd.

3. The State Bank of India Branch at CH, Kandla would be connected to Central Server of State Bank of India through Internet and the bank system would interact with CBEC's Central server through EDI messages. The Service Centres at CH, Kandla would continue to be managed by M/s CMC, under arrangement with CBEC and there would be no change in the existing charges. Until implementation of EDI message exchange at CH, Kandla, Shipping Line /Consol agents would now file IGM/EGM/Consol IGMs through the Service Centre. An authorized representative of the Shipping Line/Consol Agent would sign the checklist and this copy shall be kept in records at the Service Centre to complete the above submission process.

4. The implementation of the new application would entail certain changes in the existing Customs systems and procedures at CH, Kandla. These are being listed below for ease of reference:

a) The implementation of the new application would entail certain changes in the existing Customs systems and procedures at CH, Kandla. These are being listed below for ease of reference:

b) It may be noted that print out of processed Bills of Entry and Duty payment challans would continue to be obtained by users from Service Centre. However, printout of 'Out of Charge' Bills of Entry and Let Export and EP copies of Shipping Bills would now be provided by the customs officer(s) designated for the purpose, instead of by the Service Centre operator.

c) It may be noted that since the document numbers are to be assigned by the Central Server at a national level, once other ICES 1.5 sites are operational, all document numbers e.g. for Bills of Entry, Shipping Bills, IGMs, EGMs, challans, would not be in a continuous series for each location.

d) The duty payment challans would now be provided to the designated Bank through electronic messaging and the bank in turn would electronically confirm payment details to ICES 1.5 system.

e) State Bank of India is advised that the Desk Manager handling challans pertaining to the above locations should ensure that the challans accepted on 04.08.2010 by the cash officer are either accepted or rejected. There should not be any document pending in the Cash Manager's queue at end of day on 04.08.2010 since data from this queue will not be migrated as part of the migration of ICES operations to data center.

f) The Shipping line /Consol Agents should note that all IGM/EGM/Consol IGMs which have been filed through Service Centre should be submitted in the system failing which these details will have to be re-entered after migration to data center.

g) For Service Centre operations it may be noted that all documents entered in the Service Centre and pending for submission must be submitted prior to 04.08.2010 failing which these would have to be re-entered after migration of ICES operations to Data Centre. For instance, if for a shipping bill, a job has been entered and not submitted prior to 04.08.2010 it would have to be entered after migration of operations to data centre.

h) As in the case of Import documents, CHAs filing Export documents would be required to use their PAN based registration numbers, provided by the Policy Section of Custom House, Kandla.

i) It may be noted that now in ICES 1.5 generation of temp scroll will be mandatory for DBK scroll generation.

j) The specifications for EDI messages for Bill of Entry and Shipping Bills for users filing documents through internet are available on the ICEGATE website: http://www.icegate.gov.in/ICESl.5htm.

k) DEPB Licences registered in locations running on ICES 1.5 shall be available for automatic online debits against Bill of Entry filed at any of the ports which are operational under ICES 1.5. A common Ledger of licences shall be centrally maintained in the system for debits in respect of Bills of Entry filed at all the ICES location operating under ICES 1.5. Therefore, no TRA shall be required. However, TRA shall be issued for NON EDI Locations which are still operating manually or for ICES location which are running on old ICES Version 1.0. For this the TRA shall be generated in the system and a hard copy of TRA shall be issued which has to be registered in the system at ICES 1.0 locations.

The TRAs issued by the non-EDI locations and non centralized locations will be registered in the same manner as license registration. On registration of TRA against a DEPB, the system will generate a TRA registration number. This Registration Number should be endorsed on the Importer's copy of TRA (original) and the Customs copy received from the issuing Customs station. Only fresh RAs will be registered in the EDI System. Partially utilized RAs will continue to be handled manually.

5. Regarding Helpdesk facilities the following may be noted:

a) ICEGATE users would continue to interact with the Helpdesk at 011-23379020 and 011-23370133. This Helpdesk is managed by M/s Wipro.

b) Users requiring any other clarifications regarding the new application may interact with the Helpdesk TCS on Toll Free 1800-266-2232 Users may also directly contact Shri Immamuddun Ahmed, Deputy Commissioner, Telephone No. 02836-271462 or Shri Sanket kale, Assistant Commissioner, telephone number 02836 271488 or the following designated officers in case of any difficulty.

• DrJeetesh Nagori, Tel: 02836-271461/80 ADC (Customs,HQ) (System Manger)

6. It is proposed to commence live operation of the new application from the National Data Centre at the earliest. Consequently all Customs operations on the existing CH. Karelia server would cease with effect from end of day of 04.08.10. Filing through ICEGATE for RES users will be stopped by 4th August morning (10 AMI.Site will go manual from 05.08.2010. The date of commencement of ICES 1.5 will be informed to all concerned in due course.

7. After successful implementation of this project, it is expected that this will greatly facilitate clearance of, reduce time taken for clearance, and improve the efficiency of Customs officers. As this would be a launch of ICES 1.5, users may like to provide feedback for improvement in the working of the system. CBEC would also be making further modifications in the system to enhance functionality of the system and these changes would be notified from time to time.

8. Difficulties, if any, faced by the trade may be brought to the notice of the system manager custom house kandla.

Encl: As Above.Copy to:

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