Government Fixes Timeline To De-Notify Container Depots

In a big relief to custodians of inland container depots (ICDs) and container freight stations (CFSs), the government has fixed a four months timeline for closure of all such facilities, if they intend to do so.

The move will help expedite the process as till now there was no fixed time limit for closing down such depots and moreover as disposal of all uncleared, seized and confiscated goods is required to be completed - something which takes a lot of time - will now have to be done within four months.

It will also help in curbing cost and time overruns, official sources said.

According to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), the streamlining of closure procedure of such facilities needed to be done as due to lack of any specific deadline for doing so, the whole thing used to take months, thus causing a lot of inconvenience to custodians.

As per the CBIC circular dated August 16, custodians who want to wind up such facilities, need to submit an application to the jurisdictional principal commissioner or commissioner of customs for de-notifying the depots.

Once this is done, a nodal officer would facilitate the process of de-notifying the concerned depot or freight station, by synchronising the disposal of all goods lying at the concerned facility within the four months time limit.