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Guidelines for Clearing Imports/Exports:

Guidelines for New Clearing Procedures

The following are for clearing of general cargo at the port:

A. PRESHIPMENT INSPECTION OF GOODS:
At least two (2) weeks before shipment of goods of commercial value, and upon receipt of pro-forma invoice covering the goods, the importer must contact pre-inspection company (INTERTEK INT.) and do the following.

a. COMPLETE APPLICATION FOR inspection Form and attach a pro-Forma invoice covering the goods.
b. Pay inspection fee to the pre-shipment company designated account.
c. Upon receipt of payment advice, the pre-shipment company will cause to be prepared and transmitted to their BRANCH office in the Exporter’s Country a pre-shipment Inspection Request. The Importer is also expected to fax copy of the pre-shipment Inspection Request to the Exporter for proper co-ordination of activities with the pre-shipment Office overseas.
d. After Inspection of goods in the country or port of shipmen, a CLEAN REPORT OF FINDINGS and an IMPORT DUTY REPORT will be issued and sent directly to the Pre-shipment Office in Freetown.
e. The Importer shall collect the Import Duty Report (IDR) from their office in Freetown and submit the Bill of Entry and Import Duty Report to Customs and Excise for the commencement of Customs Clearing procedures prior to release of the goods.

B. AT CUSTOMS HOUSE: (ONE – STOP – SHOP)

INGATE SECTION OF LONG ROOM:

The following procedures shall be observed at the INGATE Section of the Long Room.
a. Registration of Entries: All Bills of Entry are recorded in the INGATE register and stamped. Stamping of the Bill of Entry will also indicate whether goods are liable to rent or deposit.
b. Face Vetting: Assistance Collector (Long Room) will face-vet of all bills of Entry to ensure that
c. Description of goods, marks and numbers, rotation numbers and H S code numbers are properly typed in the appropriate columns on the Bill of Entry and that the Declaration is signed by the Importer or his Agent.
d. .Relevant documents such as Import Duty Report, Bill of Landing, Invoice and any other special permit, clearance or certificates required to be attached to the Bill of Entry to facilitate the clearing of goods attached. After face-vetting any corrections on the Bill of Entry may be made before the next stage of the clearing process.

c. Validation, Classification and Valuation: The Valuation Officer carefully validates the Bill of Entry by ensuring that goods entered on the Bill of Entry are properly classified and in conjunction with the IMPORT DUTY REPORT, Importer’s invoice and database of values, confirms values and rates of duty.

d. Calculation of Rents, Penalties, Deposits etc After Bill of Entry is received from the Valuation Office, the Assistant Collector (Long Room) will ensure the calculation of: - Rent due to over stay
- Penalty for violation of pre-shipment inspection regulations
- Deposit and other penalties for violation of Customs Laws and regulations.

e.Bill of Entry Examination: The Bill of Entry Examination on the checking seat shall:

1. Examine the Entries to confirm that value of goods, rate of duty, amount
And all other relevant charges have been accurately computed an
correctly entered on the Bill of Entry by the Importer or his Agent
.
11. Issue an assessment notice summarizing the categories and total amount of duty and penalties payable

The Assistant Collector (Long Room) checks and approve the assessment notice and ensures that the original copy of the assessment notice, the bill of all attachment are dispatched to the Out gate Section. The Duplicate copy of the assessment Notice is handed over to the Importer/Agent to prepare his Bank draft or Cheque.

OUT GATE SECTION OF LONG ROOM.

Upon the receipt of all entry and all attachment the Out gate Officer will hand over such document to the Importer/Agent to make his payment at the Cash Branch.

1. CASH BRANCH:
I. The Importer submit the bill of entry together with the Bank draft, Bank guaranteed Cheque and cash to the cashier. The cashier’s cash collection is limited to Le 100,000.00 per Bill of entry. On no account should this be exceeded.
II. Bill of entry and copies of assessment notice are serially stamped or “numbered”
III. Receipts are issued to cover amounts due received as per the assessment notice.
Entries are made in the cashier revenue and daily occurrence books (revenue cashbook).
Principal collector (finance, accounts and budgets) verifies the bank drafts, bank guarantees and ensures that amount received do agree with amounts stated on the bill of entry and assessment notice the principal collector (finance, Accounts and Budget) counter signs the reverse of the bank drafts and bank guaranteed Cheque, stamps and signs all copies of the bill of entry and returns to the cashier for detachment of
RED COPY of bill of entry and receipts for delivery to the Importer/Agents.
.
The Original and release copies of the bill of entry are sent to the manifest striking branch.

MANIFEST STRIKING BRANCH:-

Entries received from the cash branch are credited against the relevant manifests and the appropriate page of the Manifest is recorded on the face of the bill of entry and all attachments with RED PEN or a clearly distinct marker The Bills of entries are then entered for the outdoor section.

C: AT THE QUAY

OUT –DOOR SECTION

perforation of bill of entry:- Upon receipt of the release copy of the bill of entry the principal Collection (Outdoor) perforate and endorses the original copy and dispatches it together with all attachment to the container’s section, shed, state warehouse or Baggage hall for examination of the goods.
Examination and release of goods:-
The Officer(s) assigned to examine goods carefully compares the details on the bill of entry and the attachment with the physical goods and ensures that:- The containers or packages have not been tempered with and that all seals on the packages from port of shipment are intact. The marks and numbers and other forms of description or identification of the goods correspond with the details on the bill of entry and attachments. That the packaging of goods agree with the
I. Detailed on the bill of entry.
II. That if the goods are restricted or should be covered by special permits, certificates and other form of authorization have been attached to the bill of entry.

The record of examination summarizing the quantity of goods, values and duty paid will be presented to the collector in charge of the examination section who checks and if satisfied, endorses the bill of entry and authorizes the RELEASE of the goods.

2. AT THE GATE:- At the gate the following documents should be submitted to the Customs and other Security Officers:-
1. Internal Delivery order (IDO)
11. Importer’s copy of the Bill of Entry (Red copy)
111. Receipts for amount paid

Before the goods are finally allowed to leave the Quay the Officers will inspect the documents accompanying the goods and satisfy themselves that all duties and port charges related to the goods have been paid, the signatures on the documents are genuine and the goods are indeed those recorded in the bill of entry and the internal delivery order.

PROCEDURES FOR EXPORT OF GOODS

1. Completion of export Bill of entry (B/E).
2. The B/E is logged at the In-Gate Branch for acceptance into the system and a progress number assigned.
3. The B/E is forwarded to the shipping branch for scrutiny.
4. The Collector, Shipping (Collector L/R) accepts the B/E after being checked by his officers in the branch.
5. The B/E is forwarded to the cash Branch for stamping. No taxes are levied on exports.
6. The B/E is sent to the Outdoor section for examination of the goods and release for exportation after witnessing the stuffing of the goods into the container by an officer.
7. The collector “ Q” should assign an officer to accompany the container on board the vessel and the captain of the vessel to certify receipt of the container(s).

SPECIFIC

For personal effects or goods exported not for sale, the procedure is the same as stated above.

For goods exported for sale aboard, the B/E is taken to any local commercial bank to certify return of proceeds into the country through the banking system.

For goods previously imported into the country and of which duty has been levied, the exporter will complete a duty on drawback entry of which after going through the same procedure as above, a refund of duty paid is requested after producing a landing certificate and/or a copy of the B/E for duty paid in the country of destination.

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