The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) notified the Policy and Guidelines for setting up of Inland Container Depots (ICDs), Container Freight Stations (CFSs) and Air Freight Stations (AFSs).
The Board had issued a new set of policy and guidelines for setting up of ICDs/CFSs/AFSs vide Circular No. 50/2020-Customs dated November 5, 2020. The said circular laid down various criteria for new approvals, applications and procedures for approval, post approval obligation, regulatory and other compliances, and performance monitoring etc.
As per the circular states the IMC meeting will be held twice a year and also prescribed that the jurisdictional Commissioners of Customs and the Members of IMC will furnish their comments/recommendations on the applications received in this regard within 30 days.
However, there was no cut-off date prescribed for submitting the applications and there were instances where applications were received just prior to the IMC meeting. Late
submission of application poses two challenges.
Firstly, there is no sufficient time for the jurisdictional Commissioners and IMC Members to examine the applications and to furnish their comments on the same.
Secondly, if an application is not placed in time before the scheduled IMC meeting, the applicant needs to wait for another 6 months for the next IMC meeting which in turn hampers the investment activities of the stakeholders particularly in the logistics sector.
On scrutiny of the applications and the comments/ recommendations as forwarded by the jurisdictional Commissioners, it has been noticed that there is no objective evaluation of the proposal and many a times the recommendation of the jurisdictional Commissioner does not provide a holistic picture of the feasibility of the proposal. Accordingly, it is felt that there is a need for a structured reporting system which will not only minimize the ambiguity but may also help in automation and online processing in the future.
The CBIC has said that the IMC meeting will be held on a quarterly basis.
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