Appointment of customs ports, airports, warehousing stations, etc. :

The entry/exit of carriers/passengers etc., is regulated in India by the Customs Act, 1962 which governs/regulates this entry/exit of different categories of vessels/crafts/goods/ passengers etc., into or outside the country.

Under the Customs Act, Government has given powers to appoint Customs ports and airports where alone the imported goods can be brought in for unloading or export goods loaded on ships or air crafts. Similar powers have been given to the Government to notify the places which alone shall be the Land Customs Stations for clearance of imported goods or goods to be exported by land or by inland water. Even the routes of passage by land and inland water into or out of the country can be regulated and these provisions have been made use of specially for regulating traffic for our neighboring countries like Nepal.

1. Customs port, airport, etc: Section 2(10) defines a customs airport as any airport appointed under clause (a) of Section 7 to be a customs airport and includes a place appointed under clause (aa) of that section [as mentioned below] to be an air freight station. Section 2(11) defines a customs area to mean the area of a customs station and includes any area in which imported goods or export goods are ordinarily kept before clearance by customs authorities. In turn Section 2(13) defines a customs station to mean any customs port, customs airport or land customs station.

Section 7 of the Customs Act, 1962 empowers the Board to appoint by notification in the Official Gazette:

(a) customs ports and customs airports,

(aa) inland container depots or air freight stations, for the unloading of imported goods and the loading of export goods or any class of such goods,

(b) land customs stations for the clearance of goods imported or to be exported by land or inland water or any class of such goods,

(c) the routes by which alone goods or any class of goods specified in the not ification may pass by land or inland water into or out of India, or to or from any land customs station from or to any land frontier,

(d) the coastal ports for the carrying on of trade in coastal goods or any class of such goods with all or any specified ports in India.

Some of the notified customs ports are Port Blair, Vishakapatnam, Daman and Diu, Panaji Port, Kandla, Porbandar, New Mangalore, Cochin, etc.

Some of the notified customs airports are Port Blair Hyderabad Borjhar (Guwahati) Patna Delhi Ahmedabad Srinagar Bangalore Cochin, etc.

Some of the Inland Container Depots are at Hyderbad, Tuglakbad (Delhi), Ahmedbad, Baroda, Faridabad, Bangalore Balasore, Amritsar, etc.

Some of the notified Land Custom Stations are Amritsar Railway Station, Delhi Railway Station, Calcutta Jetties No 4 and 6, Howrah Railway Station, Phulbari, Foreign Post Office of Exchange, New Delhi, Sub-foreign Post Office in Special Economic Zone Complex, Cochin, Sub-foreign Post Office in Noida Export Processing Zone, Noida, etc.