There are two words, customs, and customs clearance. What is custom? Every country in the world has an organization called Customs. Customs work is a sovereign act. This is an act that represents the supremacy of the government. It tells people what to do when entering and what to do when leaving the country. It is basically an obstacle. The process of crossing that obstacle is called clearance. Therefore, customs clearance is a process of overcoming obstacles. I can give you some similarities. When you go to the shop, you find that the security guard at the door and they will check your bag, they check your body, and they check your contents, but what are they checking? They just check whether you are carrying the things that the store owner wants to allow. Security determines the verification process in certain places where you register. You meet shoppers in several places, open the bag to check. Now let us replace the security with the customs, and replace the owner of the shop with the Ministry of Commerce. The State Administration of Foreign Trade decides what can be entered, what can be left, under what conditions, and in what form. It is the job of customs to ensure that only DGFT, which is the Director-General of Foreign Trade allows things to enter the country and goods leave the country in the way it must happen. The customs clearance process is usually carried out through so-called authorized customs brokers.
A licensed customs broker is an agent who has to represent active working in it, who has passed the customs examination, this is called Regulation- 6 exam. Individuals who pass the exam are authorized to conduct customs clearance on behalf of the company, firm or on their own name. The customs clearance process involves the submission of documents containing many details. These documents are called Bill of Entry or Shipping Bill, these documents are processed by the customs.
The customs on import cycle provide so-called out of customs charge, on export cycle, it gives what is known as Let export orders. The process of getting Out of Customs charges or OCC and on export cycle getting Let Export Order or LEO indicates that the process of customs clearance is complete by the customs.
Your goods can be shipped into or out the country. This means that any conditions imposed by DGFT have been met. This means regardless of the conditions imposed by other government departments, if any all customs procedures have been completed. Therefore, customs clearance is a simple process of accumulating documents at Indian customs, ensuring that all requirements of the Indian government are met through the Ministry of Commerce or other ministries. All customs procedures, which may include document verification, so-called cargo assessment or verification, inspection, payment of duties, and other fees, have been completed and followed and then allow goods to enter and exit the country.