DRI.F.No.21/45-POL/2010 Dated : 26.10.2010

To

The Chief Commissioner of Central Excise,Ahmmedabad/Bangalore/Bhopal/Chandigarh/Chennai/Coimbatore/New Delhi/Jaipur/Mumbai-I/Mumbai-II/Ranchi (TAR) , C.R.Building, New Delhi

The Chief Commissioner of Central Excise & Customs,Meerut/Nagpur/Pune/Shillong/Vadodara/Voshakhapatnmam

The Chief Commissioner of Customs (Preventive),Chennai, Delhi, Patna

The Chief Commissioner of Central Excise & Service Tax,Kolkata/Lucknow

The Chief Commissioner of Central Excise Customs & Service Tax,Bhubneshwar/Cochin/Hyderabad/Mysore

Madam/Sir,

Subject: Revised instructions regarding initiation of requests for enquiry overseas in Customs matters – reg.

You may be aware that guidelines regarding making requests for overseas enquiries had been formulated in 2001 vide DGRI’s D.O. 50D/11/2001 (Pt. II) dated 20-03-2001. Over a period of time, a need was felt to revisit these instructions, on account of both, the changing scenario and the lessons learnt with increased organizational experience in international cooperation in mutual assistance.

Accordingly, some changes were carried out to the 2001 instructions by way of adding a few supplementary instructions. These instructions were circulated as part of the handbook on Bilateral Agreements on Mutual Assistance in Customs Matters, which was published by DRI in 2009.

Thereafter, with a view to bring the instructions together as one monolithic whole, and also to further fine-tune the contents, a review was undertaken at the conference of ADGs, DRI, COIN officers and the Board, which was held in August, 2010 in New Delhi.

DIRECTORATE OF REVENUE INTELLIGENCEHEADQUARTERS

7TH FLOOR, DRUM SHAPE BUILDING,I.P. BHAWAN : I.P. ESTATE

NEW DELHI-110002Telefax: 2337-8058, 2337-0437

e-mail : drihqrs@nic.in

The revised instructions on the initiation of requests for overseas enquiry are enclosed with this letter.

It is hoped that the instructions would serve to bring clarity in the matter and also simplify the processes involved. It is also requested that these instructions be followed meticulously whenever requests for overseas enquiries are needed.

This issues with the approval of Director General.

Yours faithfully,

(Vanaja N.Sarna)Additional Director General

F.No.21/45-POL/2010 Dated : 26.10.2010

Instructions regarding initiation of requests for overseas enquiry

1. The need to cause an overseas enquiry in a case must be assessed by the concerned Commissioner or Additional Director General based on objective parameters such as the value of goods, duty/benefits involved, quantum of similar past imports/exports, non-availability of evidence from domestic sources, possibility of similar modus operandi being in wider use in the industry/sector, etc. The request for overseas inquiry must invariably be from the Jurisdictional Commissioner, and be addressed to Director General or Additional Director General, DRI (HQ), New Delhi.

2. Overseas enquiries in Commercial Fraud cases involving duty or export benefits of less than Rs 25 lakh should be discouraged. Cases other than commercial fraud should be considered on a case to case basis based on the merits of the case.

3. Tabulated details should be prepared containing the serial number for each consignment to be investigated and should have the following details as and where applicable. A separate table should be made for each port of loading.(a) Contract Number/date(b) Letter of Credit Number/date(c) House Airway Bill& Master Airway Bill numbers or Master Bill of Lading & House

Bill of lading & 'Shipped on Board' Bill of lading numbers.(d) Invoice No & date.(e) Packing List(f) Country of Origin Certificate number/date(g) Description of goods on physical verification, where ever different from invoice.(h) Consignee name & address(i) Consignor's name and address(j) Name of the buyer/seller if different from consignor/consignee(k) Airline/ShippingLine(l) Port of loading(m) Port of unloading(n) Container numbers

4. The reference must be accompanied with the brief of the case, the tabulated details on a CD/DVD.

5. A neatly typed preliminary investigation report regarding the nature of the offence, intricacies of the transaction, suspected role of the parties and details required from the foreign administration, each under a separate subheading, be provided.

6. Legible photocopies of all available documents in a duplicate set, neatly tagged must be provided.

7. Reminders to DRI should not be sent before at least 3 months of making the request.

8. The period to which the enquiry pertains should not normally extend beyond three years.

9. On receipt of a report on the verification/enquiry, the letter from the Customs Overseas Intelligence Network must not be relied upon for issuing the SCN. The report from the requested administration, wherever supplied without restriction on use for judicial/ quasi judicial purposes may only be relied upon. This is with the aim of not disclosing the identity of our sources overseas.