The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on 29th July 2022, as a measure to facilitate trade and ease of doing business, has enabled the facility of 24×7 Customs clearance across numerous sea ports and air cargo complexes across the country. Presently, this facility is available at 20 sea ports and 17 airports.
CBIC has advised all the Pr. Chief / Chief Commissioners, having jurisdictions over Inland Container Depots (ICDs) to consider having the ICDs within their jurisdictions designated with extended facility of Customs clearance beyond normal working hours in any of the following ways, namely :-
- The facility of Customs clearance may be made available on a 24×7 basis, similar to the current Board guidelines for Sea Ports and Air Cargos/Airports.
- The facility of Customs clearance may be extended on all seven (7) days of the week (including holidays), with stipulated timings (say from 9 :30 AM to 6 :00 PM);
- The facility of Customs clearance may be extended beyond normal working hours for specified days in a week and with specified timings.
The decision to designate an ICD in any manner as notified above, based on location requirement and resources availability, could be for specified imports viz. goods covered by ‘facilitated’ Bills of Entry only, or specified exports viz. reefer containers with perishable/ temperature sensitive export goods sealed in the presence of Customs officials only or goods exported under free Shipping Bills only, or for all the three categories mentioned.
