Self-Sealing Procedure (SSP)

Self-Sealing Procedure (SSP) shall be followed subject to the following;

1.   Eligibility: The exporters who were availing sealing at their factory premises under the system of supervised factory stuffing, will be automatically entitled for self-sealing procedure. All exporter AEOs will also be eligible for self-sealing.

2.   Premise Detail: The exporter shall be under an obligation to inform the details of the premises whether a factory or warehouse or any other place where container stuffing is to be carried out, to the jurisdictional customs officer.

3.     GST Compliant: The exporter should be registered under the GST and should be filing GSTR1 and GSTR2. Where exporter is not a GST registrant, he shall bring the export goods to a Container Freight Station/Inland Container Depot for stuffing and sealing of container.

4.   Permission for SSP: Any exporter desirous of availing this procedure shall inform the jurisdictional Custom Officer, at least 15 days before the first planned movement of a consignment from his/her factory/ premises, about the intention to follow self- sealing procedure to export goods from the factory premises or warehouse. The jurisdictional Superintendent or Inspector of Customs shall inspect the premises with regard to viability of stuffing of container in the premises and submit a report to the jurisdictional DC/AC of Customs within 48 hours. The jurisdictional DC/AC shall forward the proposal to the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs who would grant permission for self- sealing at the approved premises. Once the permission is granted, tine exporter shall furnish only intimation to the jurisdictional Superintendent or Customs each time self-sealing is carried out at approved premises. The intimation, in this regard shall clearly mention the place and address of the approved premises, description of export goods and whether or not any incentive is being claimed.

Note: Where the visit report of the Superintendent or an Appraiser or an Inspector of Customs regarding viability of the stuffing at the factory/ premises is not favorable, the exporter shall bring the goods to the Container Freight Station /Inland Container Depot/Port for sealing purposes.

5. Validity of SSP: Self-Sealing permission once given by a Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs shall be valid for export at all the customs stations. The customs formation granting the self- sealing permission shall circulate the permission along with GSTIN of the exporter to all Custom Houses/Station concerned.

6.  Transport document for movement of self-sealed container by an exporter from factory or warehouse shall be same as the transport document prescribed under the GST Laws. In the case of an exporter who is not a GST registrant, way bill or transport challan or lorry receipt shall be the transport document.

7.    The exporter shall seal the container with the “RFID tamper proof one-time-bolt seal” of standard specification conforming to ISO 17712:2013 (H) and ISO/IEC 18000-6 Class 1 Gen 2 which is globally accepted in industrial applications and can be read with the use of UHF (i.e. 860 MHz to 960 MHz) Reader-Scanners. The electronic seal should have a unique number which should be declared in the Shipping Bill. Before sealing the container, the exporter shall feed the following data such as

·        IEC (Importer Exporter Code)

·        Shipping Bill Number

·        Shipping Bill Date

·        e-seal number

·        Date of sealing

·        Time of sealing

·        Destination Customs Station for export

·        Container Number

·        Trailer- Truck Number

It is further clarified that the information need not be mounted "in the electronic seal" but tagged to the seal using a 'web / mobile application' to be provided by the vendor of the RFID seals. Data once uploaded by the exporter should not be capable of being overwritten or edited. All vendors will be required to transmit above information to RMD and the respective destination ports / ICDs of export declared by the exporter.

8.    All consignments in self-sealed containers shall be subject to risk based criteria and intelligence, if any, for examination / inspection at the port of export. At the port/ICD as the case may be, the customs officer would verify the integrity of the electronic seals to check for tampering if any en-route. The Risk Management System (RMS) is being suitably revamped to improvise the interdiction/ examination norms. However, random or intelligence based selection of such containers for examination/scanning would continue.