MUMBAI, Dec 18: In a major step towards speedier procedure, the Central Board of Excise and Customs will introduce a fast-track customs clearance scheme for some categories of imports to reduce the stages of clearance from the existing 12 to three with effect from January 1, 1998.

The items identified by the department would take care of about 60 per cent of imports, which are relatively less sensitive items as far as evasion is concerned, according to a notice issued by the department.

Basically, the new scheme will do away with scrutiny of declared value and classification of goods and examination. Importers who opt to use the scheme will get their Bills of Entry stamped with the ``Fast Track Clearance'' stamp (a green band), enclose documents in original and fill in their own assessment of duty. The Bill of Entry will be noted by the Import department and passed on to the special Fast Track Group to be set up for handling these bills, and the comptist will only check the calculations, etc.

Moreover, examination of the goods would also be done away with, and the ``out of charge'' would be given on verification that the duty had been paid, and the numbers and marks on the packages tally with the declaration.

The department has assured post clearance audit within 48 hours of the clearance from Customs.

Several importers who were present at the Custome House today wanted to know if they would be accomodated with copies of documents since originals usually took several days to reach the importer. Commissioner (Imports) M G Venugopalan clarified that in case originals are not submitted, the assessment will be treated as provisional and not final. The categories of importers identified by the department, who are being invited to avail of the scheme include government department, PSUs, units in Export Processing Zones, all 100 per cent EOUs including Hardware Technology Park and Software Technology Park.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.