India waives port procedures for cargo forced to turn back due to Strait of Hormuz crisis

New Delhi: India has waived import procedures at domestic ports for the unloading of export shipments that were forced to turn back due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, offering temporary relief to traders and shipping lines grappling with maritime disruptions amid the Iran war.

In a circular issued Sunday, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) laid out a simplified process for handling containers that were unable to reach overseas destinations after the disruption in West Asian shipping lanes. The relief is for 15 days.

Customs field formations have also been asked to manually recover export incentives such as integrated goods and services tax refunds or duty drawback if they have already been disbursed.

Under the new relief window, vessels carrying such cargo can berth at the same Indian port from where they departed and containers can be offloaded without filing a Bill of Entry, provided the ship did not call at any foreign port during the voyage.

Customs officials will verify container details with the corresponding shipping bills and check seal integrity before allowing the cargo to be moved back to exporters.

Shipping bills and the associated Let Export Order will be cancelled to ensure that export incentives are not claimed for shipments that did not reach foreign buyers.

The circular was issued after exporters and customs field formations reported vessels returning to India because of the disruption along the key West Asian shipping route.

Where export documentation such as Export General Manifest has already been filed, the customs electronic system will introduce a new facility to cancel shipping bills after filing so that benefits like IGST refunds and duty drawback are not released, the circular said.

The customs data system, ICEGATE, will share details of such cancellations with the Reserve Bank of India and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade to prevent export incentives from being processed.

However, if a vessel had called at a foreign port before returning to India without unloading the cargo, the shipment will still be treated as exported under existing rules.

"Till the new system as mentioned above is developed, the field formations shall maintain all records manually and enter the details in the system, once it is operationalised," the circular said.