Four major airports and seaports to provide round-the-clock customs facilities

The government will make available round-the-clock custom clearance facilities at identified seaports and airports in the country in order to facilitate trade and reduce the piling up of uncleared goods at the customs.

The 24x7 customs clearance facility will be available at the Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai airports and the sea ports at Chennai, Kolkata, Kandla and JNPT (Mumbai) from 25 August, on a pilot basis, an official release said on Tuesday.

A notification in this regard will issue by 10 August and actual 24x7 operations will commence after a fortnight, ie, on 25 August, a release issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

The 24x7 operations would initially be on a pilot basis with customs operations along with all other complementary services. Along with customs clearances, other government agencies such as the concerned port/airport authority, drug controller, FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India), quarantine, etc, and private players such as custodians, CHAs (Customs House Agents), banks, transporters, etc, will also have to work 24x7 to synchronise with the extended work hours.

This would be initially for four months, after which efforts would be made to expand similar operations at other locations.

The 24x7 operations would be available for certain categories of imports and exports. For imports, the category ''No Assessment No Examination'' will be covered. This would account for 70 per cent of imports.