Keeping in view of the Government’s objective of promoting Ease of Doing Business, particularly in Trading across Borders, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has rolled out the 1^st phase of Faceless Assessment pan India.  The new initiative has been launched at Chennai and Bengaluru Customs Zones from 08.06.2020 and will be expanded to all ports, Inland Container Depots and Airports across India by this calendar year end.

          The objective of Faceless Assessment is to bring anonymity, transparency and uniformity in assessment practices.  For the benefit of the importers, a lot of initiatives have already been put in place under the umbrella of Turant Customs to enable smooth implementation of Faceless Assessment without any need for a physical interface with the Customs officers insofar as assessment is concerned.

          Under this new initiative, all the Customs formations falling within the jurisdiction of Chennai and Bengaluru Zone are covered under the 1^st phase of Faceless Assessment and the Bills of Entry filed for items of import covered by Chapter 84 and Chapter 85 of Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (Machinery & Electronics Goods) will get assigned by the Customs Automated System for Faceless Assessment to any of the designated officers within these two Customs zones.

          On 8^th June, 2020 the “Turant Suvidha Kendra”, a dedicated cell formed with the objective to facilitate the trading community in completing various formalities relating to Faceless Assessment locally at the port of Import was inaugurated by Shri. Vasa Seshagiri Rao, IRS, Principal Chief Commissioner of Customs, Chennai Customs Zone. The said cell will be operational at Room No G-110, 1^st Floor Custom House, Chennai.  The said Kendra will be manned by Asst Commissioner of Customs (TSK), one superintendent and one examining officer.

          The important functions of Turant Suvidha Kendra are to accept Bond& Bank Guarantees & debit the same pertaining to assessments for Bills of Entry filed under Chapter 84 & 85 of Customs Tariff Act, for the Chennai Zone, generating test memo and forwarding samples, defacing or debiting of documents/permits/certificates, processing request for fee waiver for late filing and carry out any other technical function referred by the Faceless Assessment Groups according to a press release issued by Shri. R. Srinivasa Naik, Commissioner of Customs, Chennai – Import.

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