After receiving the documents of little of the goods, the importer’s only concern is to take delivery of the goods when the ship arrives at the port and to bring them to his own peace of business.
The importer has to comply with many formalities of taking delivery of the goods. Unless the following mentioned formalities are compiled with, the goods lie in the custody of the Custom House.
(a) To obtain Endorsement for Delivery or Order:
When the ship carrying the goods arrives at the port, the importer, first of all, has to obtain the endorsement on the back of bill of lading by the shipping company. Sometimes the shipping company, instead of endorsing the bill in his favour issues a delivery order to him.
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
This endorsement or delivery order will entitle the importer to take the delivery of the goods. The shipping company makes this endorsement or issues the delivery order only after the payment of freight. If the Exporter has not paid the freight i.e., when the bill of lading is marked freight forward, the Importer has to pay the freight in order to get green signed form for delivery of goods.
(b) To Pay Dock dues and obtain Port Trust Dues Receipt:
The importer has to submit two copies of a form known as “application to import” duly filled in to the ‘lading and shipping dues office’. This office levies a charge on all imported goods for services rendered by the dock authorities in connection with lading of goods. After paying the necessary charges, the importer receive back one copy of the application to import as a receipt called Port Trust dues receipt.’
(c) Bill of Entry:
The importer will then fill in a form called Bill of Entry. This is a form supplied by the custom office and is to be filled in triplicate. The bill of entry contains the particulars rewarding the name and address of the importer, the name of the ship packages number marks, quantity, value, description of goods, the name of the country wherefrom goods have been imported and custom duty payable.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The bill of entry forms are of three types and are printed in three colours—Black, Blue and Violet. A black form is used for non-dutiable or free goods, the blue form is used for goods to be sold within the country and the violet form is used for respectable goods, i.e. goods meant for re-export. The importer has to submit three forms of bill entry along with Port Trust Dues Receipt to the customs office.
(d) Bill of Sight:
If the Importer is not in a position to supply the detailed particulars of goods because of insufficiency of information supplied to him by the Exporter, he had to prepare a statement called a Bill of Sight.
(e) To pay customs or import duty:
There are three types of imported goods:
(i) Non-dutiable or free goods
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(ii) Goods which are to be sold within the country of which are for home consumption, and
(iii) Re-exportable goods i.e., goods meant for re-export. But if the goods are liable for duty, the importer has to pay custom or import duty which may be based on the value of the imported goods ad-valorem duty.
There are three types of import duties. On some goods quite low duties are levied and they are called revenue duties. On some others,, quite high duties are charged to give protection to home industries against foreign competition. While goods imported from certain nations are given preferential treatment for the levy of import duties and in their case full protective duties are not charged.
(f) Bonded and duty paid warehouses:
The port trust and custom authorities maintain two types of ware houses bonded and duty paid. These warehouses are situated near the dock area and are very useful to importers who do not have godowns of their own to store the imported goods or who, for business reasons, do not wish to carry them to their own godowns.
The goods on which the duty has already been paid by the importer can be kept in the duty paid warehouses for which a receipt called warehouse receipt is issued to him. If the importer cannot pay the duty, he may keep the goods in bonded warehouses for which he is issued a receipt called ‘Dock warrant’. Dock warrant also like warehouses receipt is a document of little and is transferable. The bonded warehouses are used by the importers when:
1. He has no godown of his own.
2. He cannot pay the duty immediately.
3. He wants to re-export the goods and thereby does not want to pay the duty in installments.
4. He wants to pay the duty in installments.
A nominal rent is charged for the use of these warehouses. One special advantage of these warehouses is that the importer can sell the goods and transfer the title of goods merely by endorsing warehouse receptor dock-warrant. This will save the importers from the trouble and expenses of carrying the goods from the warehouses to his godown.
(g) Appointment of clearing agents:
By now we understand that the importer has to fulfill many legal formalities before he can take delivery of goods. The importers may take the delivery of the goods himself at the port. But it involves much of time, expense and difficulty, the importer may appoint clearing agents use the specialized persons engaged in the work of performing various formalities required for taking the delivery of goods on behalf of others. They charge some remuneration for performing these valuable services.