CBIC said it was intimated that the designated nodal Commissioners would be precursors to the National Assessment Centres (NACs). Accordingly, the Board has decided to constitute a total 11 NACs, as mentioned in Annexure II. These NACs are organized commodity-wise according to the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975.

• Each NAC shall be co-convened by the Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners of the Zones. Each NAC shall consist of the Principal Commissioners/Commissioners of Customs
• The NACs have a critical role in the successful implementation of Faceless Assessment. In addition to their existing work, the NACs need to work in a coordinated manner to ensure that all assessments are carried out in a timely manner and there is no delay or hold up of the Bills of Entry. The NACs would also examine the assessment practices of imported goods across Customs stations to bring about uniformity and enhanced quality of assessments
• The important responsibilities of the NACs will be to monitor the assessment practice for enhancing uniformity of classification, valuation, exemption benefit and compliance with import policy conditions. It will also assess the application of Compulsory Compliance Requirements (CCRs) and ensure uniform practices in accordance with the relevant statutes/Legal provisions
• It will also study audit objections and take corrective actions regarding assessments, wherever necessary and provide inputs to the concerned ports of import
• NACs shall also coordinate with Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) related to management of alerts undertaken by the NAC, Directorate General of Valuation (DGoV) to enhance expertise related to sensitive commodities handled. DGoV shall also appoint a nodal person for every NAC for better coordination
• Before the rollout of Faceless Assessment, the Nodal Commissioners in the NAC shall coordinate to take all measures to ensure that Faceless Assessment is smooth and creates no disruption in the assessment and clearance of goods
• Before the launch, the Customs locations within each Zone, performing Faceless Assessment may be identified. The volume of import and availability of adequate officers may be taken into consideration for such identification and nominate sufficient number of officers for the Faceless Assessment. The officers should be more than two at all levels, to ensure availability. To the extent possible, a dedicated team of officers may be posted to the Faceless Assessment Groups.

Application Procedure

• Fill the online application form as per Annexure A of MOOWR, 2019 with required details and documents as mentioned in the annexure.
• Execute a triple duty bond as per Annexure C of MOOWR, 2019 and submit a physical copy to the Jurisdictional Commissioner of Customs
• Commissioner of customs grants the permission for manufacturing or other operations in the bonded facility.

• The importer shall present bill of entry on the Customs Automated System (i.e., ICEGATE portal or ICEGATE) electronically, as per Section 46 of the Customs Act, 1962 and upload supporting documents such as Invoice, Packing List, Bill of Lading, as usual in all the cases, and License/Authorisation/permission, BIS or other registrations, Scrips, Equipment Type Approval, Certificate of Origin, Certificate for claiming duty exemption etc., if required for the consignment, on e-Sanchit. As at present, the selection of a bill of entry for verification of self-assessment shall primarily be on the basis of risk evaluation through appropriate selection criteria.
• In cases, where the importer has prior knowledge that there is a requirement of execution of Bond or Bank guarantee for the assessment of the said bill of entry, such as in the case of a warehouse bill of entry or where the importer has sought provisional assessment or where a claim to any concessional rate of duty or exemption under duty remission/exemption schemes, is subject to filing of Bond/ Bank Guarantee, they should be encouraged to opt for Continuity Bond option, to avoid fresh registration of Bonds every time during filing of bill of entry.
• The bill of entry would be assigned to an officer of the concerned Faceless Assessment Group for verification of assessment purposes by the Customs Automated System.
  For verification of assessment of the bill of entry, the Faceless Assessment Group may decide to:
  1. return the bill of entry to the importer for payment of duty after verification on the basis of the declaration made and documents available in e-Sanchit or
  2. seek additional information or documents for proceeding with the verification; and/or
  3. get examination and/or testing of goods carried out, for the determination of duty liability and/or for ensuring the compliance of restriction and prohibition
• Where the Faceless Assessment Group is of the opinion that additional information or documents are required for proceeding with the verification of assessment, the Faceless Assessment Group shall raise query electronically for additional information or seek additional documents, preferably in a consolidated manner, through ICEGATE portal. The importer shall respond to the query electronically and/or provide additional documents through e-Sanchit. After scrutinising the same, the Faceless Assessment Group shall:
  1. Return the bill of entry to the importer for payment of duty after verification; or
  2. Not agree with the self-assessment and re-assess the bill of entry. In this case, if the importer does not agree with the re-assessment, the Faceless Assessment Group shall issue a speaking order, as prescribed in Section 17(5) of the Customs Act, 1962 following the procedure referred to in paragraph 5.4 of this instruction.
• The Faceless Assessment Group may, whether in course of accepting the self- assessment or re-assessing the bill of entry, order for second check examination of the goods including the directions to the shed officers at the port of import to verify original documents, deface documents, take custody of the document, NOC from PGAs, verification of Country of Origin Certificate etc. Further, it is clarified that, wherever situation warrants that the authenticity of any document submitted through e-Sanchit has to be verified through any external agency, such communication shall be made by the port of import.
• Where the Faceless Assessment Group is of the opinion that examination and/or testing of goods is required for proper verification of the assessment, based on own assessment or on the request from importer:
  1. The Faceless Assessment Group may order for first check examination or testing of the goods with specific directions or testing parameters to the shed officers at the port of import. The responsibility for sending the samples to the appropriate laboratory with the requisite test memo, if ordered by Faceless Assessment Group would lie with the shed officers at the port of import.
  2. The shed officers/Centralised Cell, as the case may be at the port of import would feed the examination and/or the test report, when it is received from the laboratory, in the system and refer the bill of entry back to Faceless Assessment Group
  3. If the Faceless Assessment Group concludes that the prior testing of goods is going to take considerable time and the bill of entry should be assessed provisionally, they may refer the bill of entry to the PAG at the port of import, following the procedure stipulated in 5.3.2 and clearly specifying the reasons thereof. In such cases, the bill of entry would be assessed by PAG at the port of import, after the receipt of the examination/test report.
  4. If the imported goods are found to be subject to some restriction or prohibition or mis-declared, on the basis of said test and/or examination report fed by the shed officers at the port of import, the Faceless Assessment Group shall refer the bill of entry to PAG at the port of import for action.
  5. It is clarified that, irrespective of pending verification at Faceless assessment Group, if the importer requests for storage of the imported goods in warehouse pending clearance under Section 49 of the Customs Act, 1962, such request shall be processed by officers of the port of import promptly.
• The shed officers at the port of import would carry out the necessary verification or examination or other tasks, as required by the Faceless Assessment Groups or required as per Compulsory Compliance Requirements of the Risk Management System. Any time after the bill of entry is returned from Faceless Assessment Groups to the port of import, if the import of goods is found to be subject to some restriction or prohibition or mis- declared, PAG may carry out re-assessment and initiate action as prescribed under section 124 of the Customs Act, 1962, if required.