Kochi: A recent upgradation of the online document filing system at Kochi Custom House is reportedly causing difficulties for the exim trade at Kochi port.

Members of the trading community said that the EDI/ ICEGATE system for filing customs documents was shut down on August 11 for upgradation, and documents were filed manually.

The online operations restarted within a week under the new 1.5 (ICES) version, but while exports documentation is now routed through EDI/ ICEGATE it cannot be used for items with cess and incentives.

It is worse for imports, as not a single Bill of Entry can be filed online, the sources said.

Prior to the system upgradation, steamer agents were allowed to file the IGM/EGM (import general manifest and export general manifest) through CDs/floppies at the service centre of the Custom House, after which it was uploaded into the ICEGATE.

Now the IGM/EGM data has to be entered manually before it is uploaded into the system, which is a tedious process.

This has forced shipping agents to privately download the link from the Customs server and upload IGM/EGM data online. Without the IGM from steamer agents, Customs agents cannot file Bills of Entry, leading to pile-up of import containers at the container terminal, sources said. More than 7,000 TEUs, mainly imports, are currently piled up at the container terminal.

The terminal operator has initiated steps to move the import containers to the nearby CFS, ICDs, which is adding to import costs.

Moreover, the demurrage and detention charges are rising with each passing day. The pile-up of import containers is also affecting loading operations, the sources added.

The trade has requested the Directorate of Systems and Data Management under the Central Board of Excise and Customs to to quickly resolve the issue and restore normal operations before the situation could deteriorate any further.

The sources felt that the National Informatics Centre, which is upgrading the system, should have permitted parallel running of both versions to ensure all hitches are ironed out before completely replacing the older version.