Restrictions on goods being water-borne [Section 35]:
There are certain customs ports like Pondicherry, Tuticorin, Mangalore, Saurashtra, where the ships cannot come to the shore for unloading or loading. In these places the cargo is ferried from the ships anchored at mid-sea to the port in boats, otherwise known as lighters. Even in other ports like Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Cochin etc. not all ships arriving in the port get a berth. They have to wait for some time before they get allotment of berth. At times the ships have tight itinerary. In such cases the import cargo is taken from the ship to the shore and the export cargo is taken from the shore to the ship in boats.
Section 35 of the Customs Act stipulates that no imported goods shall be water borne for being loaded in any vessel, and no export goods which are not accompanied by a shipping bill, shall be water borne for being shipped unless the goods are accompanied by a boat note in the prescribed form.
However, the board may, by notification give general permission and the proper officer may in any particular case, give special permission, for any goods or any class of goods to be water borne without being accompanied by a boat-note.
At present this exemption is in operation in
(1) Chennai Port – for both imports and exports
(2) Kolkata Port – for exports only.
Boat Note Regulations: The form and content of the boat note is prescribed under the Boat Note Regulations, 1976.
These regulations specify that
(1) normally the boat note should be issued by the proper officer;
(2) however, in a special case, the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs, may authorize an exporter or his authorized agent to issue a boat note;
(3) Every person who is authorised by the Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner as above, shall maintain proper account of boat notes issued by him and furnish to the proper officer such information as may be specified by the Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner.
(4) the boat notes should be of such dimension and colour as in prescribed forms;
(5) the boat notes should be in duplicate and machine numbered.
Separate forms are prescribed for export cargo, import cargo, and transshipment cargo (i.e transfer from one ship to another or for transshipment) .