TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
Amendment to Ch. IX of Customs Act, 1962 - Insertion of Section 58A - Clarification regarding transitional provisions relating to Duty Free Shops/Ship stores/Airline Stores/Diplomatic Stores
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....o. 20/2016-Customs dated 20.5.2016 on the above subject. 2. The Finance Act, 2016 has inserted section 58 A in chapter IX of the Customs Act. Section 58 A reads as under: SECTION 58A. Licensing of Special Warehouses - (1) The Principal Commissioner of Customs or Commissioner of Customs may, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, license a special warehouse wherein dutiable goods may be deposited and such warehouse shall be caused to be locked by the proper officer and no person shall enter the warehouse or remove any goods therefrom without the permission of the proper officer. (2)The Board may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify the class of goods which shall be deposited in the special warehouse licensed un....
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.... existing licensees: (i) Application to be received from existing licensees within one month along with the certificate/undertakings mentioned in sub regulation (1) of regulation 3 of the Special Warehouse Licensing Regulations 2016; (ii) The applications should be processed within 15 days of receipt. Since the due diligence of existing licenses was carried out while granting the license, there would be no need for verifying compliance to. the conditions under sub regulation (2) of regulation 3; (iii) Licensee shall thereafter comply with the obligations enjoined under regulation 4 within the next fifteen days. (iv) The license shall be issued immediately thereafter. 5. A question has been raised as to whether a Duty Free Shop....
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....ly, the provisions contained 'in erstwhile section 64 or as it now stands do not permit retail sales from a warehouse. From this it flows that a duty free shop located in a customs area should not be treated as a warehouse. In fact, it is a point of sale for the goods which are to be ex-bonded and removed from a warehouse for being brought to a DFS in the customs area for sale to eligible persons, namely, international passengers arriving or departing from India. 5.3 It is gathered that Duty Free Shop operators store goods in large warehouses in the city and / or in smaller warehouses in and around the precinct of the airport to act as a staging area for replenishing stocks in the duty free shopping area. These warehouses in the city ....