We have a private bonded warehouse licensed under Section 58 of the Customs Act, 1962. We keep facing audits every now and then. We also face all types of questions that we think are unnecessary. Is there any instruction regarding the periodicity of the audit and what should be audited?
As per CBEC Circular no. 52/98-cus dated 27.07.1998, bonded warehouses shall be audited by the audit parties once in six months, supported by surprise checks by senior officers. The audit parties, in addition to normal audit of the documents of a warehouse, shall pay special attention to the following aspects:
(i) The description of goods, nature, number and other relevant particulars mentioned in into-bond Bills of Entry shall be matched with corresponding ex-bond Bill of Entry;
(ii) Status report regarding consignments pending for one year and above should be cross- checked in the Customs House where the warehousing Bills of Entry had originated;
(iii) All the consignments, which continue to lie in a warehouse after expiry of the warehousing period, should be taken up for scrutiny in order to guard against deterioration, substitution or other unlawful removal. The latest CBEC Manual of Supplementary Instructions, 2011 reiterates these instructions.
Under the Right to Information Act (RTI), we want to call for names of corrupt staff members from the customs and excise departments in Bangalore and also know the status of various cases against them. Can we get the information from the departments concerned?
In the case of Superintendent of Police, Chennai Vs. R Karthikeyan [2011 (266) ELT 456 (MAD.)] the Madras High Court had held that information must be furnished to the applicant under the RTI Act regarding the names and addresses of the officials caught during a raid by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, Chennai, along with the amount recovered from each official, as well as the details of the departmental action taken against each official, the details of prosecution launched against the officials under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the status of such prosecution against each official and whether the persons whose names were furnished were re-instated in service and, if so, the date on which they rejoined the service as well as the details of list of action taken by the department to prevent corruption at Police Station/Branches/Wings in Chennai city.
The High Court also held that information must be furnished to the applicant under the RTI Act regarding the number of investigations completed, convictions arrived at in the last five years, list of persons convicted in the last five years with reference to their names, the post in which they have committed corrupt practices, description of charges and the recommendation given to the Vigilance Commissioner after investigation. Based on this case law, I am of the opinion that you can call for similar information from your Customs and Excise departments under the RTI Act. You may not get information about corrupt staff members who are yet to be caught.
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