A customs house agent (CHA) is licensed to act as an agent for transaction of any business relating to the entry or departure of conveyances or the import or export of goods at a customs station. CHAs maintain detailed, itemized and up-to-date accounts. A CHA license may be temporary or permanent.
Custom house agent is like a legal adviser or lawyer, they will suggest you the correct classification of goods.
And it helps you to get out of your goods from customs.
Whenever your CHA will file your bill of entry/shipping bill, Customs officers may raise the query on the bill of entry.
When a customs officer raised a query at the same time, The “G-card” holder of your CHA will meet the customs officer and resolve the query & the whole customs clearance process is done by CHA.
Appointing a customs house agent is a good idea for smoother customs clearance goods.
Is Customs House Agents (CHA) required to be appointed mandatory?
If you are in to an import export trade, I know, most of you appoint a Customs House Agent to do necessary import and export procedures and formalities of customs. These Customs House Agents act on behalf of you with customs officials to undergo necessary export and import clearance procedures and formalities.
In an export, a customs broker delivers documents to exporter after completing necessary export formalities with customs. In an import trade, goods are delivered to importer by customs broker after completing necessary import customs clearance procedures and formalities with custom department.
Here the question is, whether an importer or exporter need to appoint a customs broker to complete import or export clearance procedures?
Can an exporter / importer file customs documents without appointing a CHA (customs house agents). Is Customs House Agents (CHA ) required to be appointed mandatory?
The answer is ‘No’. As per customs law, any exporter or importer can directly file documents of their own shipments and complete the procedures and formalities. It does not mean that the exporter/importer can file documents of other exporter or importer. There are many firms appointed their office personnel to clear the cargo of their own. Normally ‘self clearance’ arrangements are done by some of the firms to have a complete transparency between customs authorities and firm. However, most of the companies appoint a CHA for smooth clearance of their goods which saves more time and concentration their own trade, as CHA has more ‘communicating strength’ with the customs authorities as they know exact language of customs.
Essential things to become a certified Custom House Agent (CHA)
A custom house agent or CHA is a person authorized and licensed to act as an agent for any business transaction related to import and export of goods at the customs. To be accepted as a licensed Custom House Agent, the person has to obtain a valid license issued by the Commissioner of Customs under section 146 of the Customs Act, 1962 as pert Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations, 1984.
Qualification
To qualify as an applicant for CHA, a person should:
Be a Graduate from a recognized university.
Possess a pass in Form G for a year as an employee of the firm or company with written authorization from the Commissioner
Have 3 years experience in Customs clearance work.
Have assets of Rs. 5 lakhs or more certified with the bank.
Procedure:
A CHA license may be temporary or permanent. A temporary license is granted by the commissioner of customs in the month of January every year after scrutinization of the applications for the license. It is the important for the applicant applying for the temporary license to have worked as an employee under a valid CHA and a permanent identity card. Along with the following qualifications, the applicant must have experience in clearing goods through the customs for at least a year or more as a permanent pass-holder. It is initially granted for a year that can be extended to another 6 months and so on.
On the other hand to obtain a permanent or regular CHA license, a temporary licensed applicant has to qualify both written and oral exam within a period of 2 years from the date of issue of temporary license within 3 attempts or chances. After qualifying the exam, the applicant can apply to the commissioner in the prescribed form by making the prescribed fee payment of Rs 5000/-. The regular license granted has a validity of 5 years and can be renewed on application made to the Commissioner before the expiry of the validity period by a renewal fee payment of Rs. 3000/-.
The duties of a CHA involves proper authorization of goods by personally monitoring the process of clearing the goods through an employee designated by the Commissioner. Sourcing from China is a hot demand of many business houses to make outsourcing easy and fast, a certified Custom house agent or custom house agencies required.
BELOW ARE THE BEST CHA's & Their CONTACT DETAIL YOU CAN FIND IN MUMBAI FOR YOUR CARGO CLEARANCE
1. Fairdeal Shipping Agency Pvt Ltd
Address:Room no#97, Philip House, 1st Floor, Sahar Village, Andheri East, Mumbai 400099
Phone: 022 2681 7588/8898892526
2. TWN LOGISTICS PRIVATE LIMITED
Address:OFFICE B 202, PLOT NO 85, SAI SANGAM, SECTOR 15, CBD NAVI MUMBAI Thane MH 400614 IN
Phone: 022 2838 7474
3. Khimji Poonja:
Address: Jayant Apartment, Sahar Cargo, B/201, Sahar Rd, Sutar Pakadi, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Area, Andheri, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400099
Phone: 022 6785 2100
4. Jeena & Co
Address: Jeena House, Plot No. 170, Om Nagar, Off Pipeline Road,, Sahar, Andheri East, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001
Phone: 022 4422 2111
5. RHITA CARGO FORWARDERS
Address: 419/1/2, Tank Pakhadi, Victor Maxi Compound, Near International Air Cargo Complex, Sahar, Sahar Village, Andheri East, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400099
Phone; 022 28387474
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