Manifest Reconciliation Statement Scheme Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions of participation in the Manifest Reconciliation Statement Scheme for Sea Shipments

1. Definition of Terms

The following words and expressions shall have meanings hereby assigned to them except where the context otherwise requires:

“the Director-General” refers to the Director-General of Singapore Customs established under section 4(1) of the Customs Act (Cap. 70);

“User” refers to the owners, masters or agents of any vessel, including any sub-operators, who sign this Agreement accepting the terms and conditions herein;

“Sub-operator” refers to any shipping agent who has sub-chartered space in a vessel for purposes such as slot-chartering, consortium or other commercial arrangements such that these agents are deemed to be agents of the vessel and as such are required to submit manifest and permits to the Director-General as set out in Regulation 11(2) and Regulation 12(2) of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Regulations (Cap 272A, Rg1);

“Declarant” refers to any of the User’s employees duly authorised to prepare, check and sign the Manifest Reconciliation Statement on behalf of the User;

“Manifest Reconciliation Statement (MRS)” refers to the form and format of the information pertaining to manifest and permits that are required to be submitted in accordance with these terms and conditions and pursuant to Regulation 11(3) and Regulation 12(3) of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Regulations (Cap 272A, Rg1);

“Scheme” refers to the:

procedures, terms and conditions as herein set out, whereby the Director-General shall consider and accept the delivery of the MRS by the User; and
keeping of manifests, duly authorised declarations and other supporting documents at the User’s premises for Audit purposes.

“Audit” refers to the examination by the Director-General of the manifest, permits and other supporting documents to determine that all consignments listed in the manifest are duly authorised imports or exports; that the inward and outward declarations are complete and accurate and are not in contravention of any of the provisions of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Act (Cap 272A); and that the User has complied with all other terms and conditions of the Scheme and any written law presently in force in Singapore;

“Sign” with respect to MRS transmitted via electronic transmission, “sign” shall be deemed to be the keying in of the unique user identification and password associated with the User or the Declarant as the case may be.

2. Compliance with the Regulation of Imports and Exports Regulations

2.1 The Director-General, in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 11(3) and Regulation 12(3) of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Regulations (Cap 272A, Rg1), shall allow the User to submit Manifest Reconciliation Statements (MRS), in accordance with the terms and conditions as herein set out. The MRS shall be in lieu of the list of documents specified in Regulations 11(2) and 12(2) of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Regulations (Cap 272A, Rg1).

2.2 The submission of the MRS by the User shall be accepted by the Director-General provided that the User is not in breach of any of these terms and conditions or any of the provisions of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Act (Cap 272A) or any regulations made thereunder.

2.3 In the event that there is such a breach as stated in clause 2.2 above, the Director-General reserves the right to withdraw the User from the Scheme and to direct the User to abide by the provisions of Regulation 11(2) and Regulation 12(2). In connection with this, the Director-General reserves the right to reject any MRS that the User might seek to submit in contravention of the above direction.

2.4 The User shall submit the MRS via electronic transmission such as the Internet. The Director-General however reserves the right at all times to direct the mode(s) via which the MRS is to be transmitted by the Users.

3. Registration

3.1 Any owner, master, agent or sub-operator required to deliver manifests and permits to the Director-General in compliance with Regulation 11(2) and Regulation 12(2) of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Regulations (Cap 272A Rg 1), and who wishes to participate in the Scheme must be registered with the Director-General as a User.

3.2 Users will be required to login using CorpPass to submit the MRS via Web Manifest Reconciliation Statement System for Sea Shipments (WMRS).

3.3 It will be the responsibility of the User to ensure that all MRS delivered by the User to the Director-General are accurate and complete notwithstanding that the MRS may be signed by their respective Declarants. The User will be held liable for the accuracy and completeness of all MRS submitted by them or on their behalf to the Director-General. The Declarants will also be held liable for the accuracy and completeness of any MRS which they have signed, or any breach of these terms and conditions.

3.4 Where any breach of these terms and conditions is committed by or is attributable to any of the employees of the User, whether they are Declarants or not, the User shall be deemed to be guilty of the breach and shall be liable to penalties as provided for in clause 7.2 below.

4. Delivery of the Manifest Reconciliation Statement

4.1 All MRS shall be delivered to the Director-General in such form and format as the Director-General may, from time to time, specify.

4.2 For imports, the User shall deliver the MRS to the Director-General within seventeen (17) days from the arrival of the vessel, and for exports, within fourteen (14) days from the departure of the vessel. However, in the event that the User is also a sub-operator, then the sub-operator may elect to:

deliver the MRS to the owner or master of the vessel, who shall in turn consolidate all the MRS received from such sub-operators with its own MRS and deliver the consolidated MRS to the Director-General such that the consolidated MRS is received by the Director-General within seventeen (17) days from the arrival of the vessel or fourteen (14) days from the departure of the vessel; or
deliver the MRS directly to the Director-General via electronic transmission within seventeen (17) days from the arrival of the vessel or fourteen (14) days from the departure of the vessel as the case may be.

4.3 The Director-General reserves the right to require the User to deliver additional documents with the MRS, including the Undelivered Cargo List/Outstanding List for inward shipments and attachment sheet/Outstanding List for outward consignments without duly authorised outward declarations. The Director-General reserves the right to specify the form and manner in which these additional documents are to be delivered to the Director-General.

4.4 The Director-General may exempt the User from the requirement to submit Nil MRS within seventeen (17) days from the arrival of the vessel and fourteen (14) days from the departure of the vessel.

4.5 There shall be no amendments to or re-deliveries of any MRS once it has been duly sent to the Director-General except as allowed by the Director-General or where hereinafter provided for. The User will receive an acknowledgement for all MRS successfully delivered via the Internet to the Director-General. In the event that the User does not receive such acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission of the MRS, the User is to re-deliver the MRS via the Internet to the Director-General.

5. Storage of Manifests and Supporting Documents

5.1 The User shall, on a per vessel basis, store the manifests, permits and all other supporting documents at its premises. The period of storage shall be not less than one month from the date of submission of the MRS to the Director-General.

5.2 Supporting documents in lieu of permits include:

ATA Carnet endorsed by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA); and
Carnet de Passage for used passenger motor vehicles endorsed by Automobile Association of Singapore.

5.3 The User shall make the manifests, permits and supporting documents available to the Director-General upon request.

6. Audit

6.1 The User shall be subject to an Audit as and when required by the Director-General. The Director-General, in his sole discretion, will determine if the Audit is to be at the User’s premises or at the Director-General’s office.

6.2 For Audits to be conducted at the Director-General’s office, the Director-General will ask the User to submit to the Director-General documents pertinent to the Audit. Such documents are to be submitted within three (3) working days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays) of the notification. Failure to do so shall amount to a breach of the terms and conditions and the User may be subject to the penalties as set out in clause 7.2 below. In this regard, User’s attention is drawn to section 30 of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Act (Cap 272A).

6.3 For Audits to be conducted at the User’s premises, the Director-General: -

will notify the User in writing at least one (1) working day in advance that Customs officers will be visiting the User’s premises.
has the right to remove manifests and supporting documents for the most convenient conduct of the Audit at the Director-General’s office.

6.4 The User shall co-operate and assist the Customs officers in collecting the manifests and supporting documents whether the Audit is conducted at the User’s premises or at the Director-General’s office.

6.5 At the conclusion of the Audit, unless otherwise indicated by the User at the time of delivery of the documents to the Director-General or at the time when the documents are taken by the Director-General from the User’s premises, the documents will be duly destroyed by the Director-General. The User shall not hold the Director-General liable or responsible for any consequences arising from the destruction of the said documents.

7. Penalties for Non-Compliance with the Terms and Conditions

7.1 The Director-General may, in his sole discretion, take action against the User and/or the Declarant for breach of any of these terms and conditions including but not limited to:

non-delivery of the MRS to the Director-General;
late delivery of the MRS beyond the stipulated time period;
furnishing information which is false or incorrect in a MRS;
failure to produce the manifests and/or supporting documents during an Audit; and
unauthorised use of the User Identification or password.

7.2 The action taken by the Director-General includes the following:

increased frequency of Audits;
disallowing the Declarant from preparing and signing the MRS on the User’s behalf;
ordering the User to authorise a new Declarant; and
any other action permitted under the Regulation of Imports and Exports Act (Cap 272A) and/or any other regulations made thereunder or any other written law in Singapore administered by the Director-General.

8. General

8.1 The User shall comply with and be bound by all the terms and conditions stated in this document.

8.2 The User is responsible for ensuring that the MRS is submitted to the Director-General within the time frame as set out in the Regulation of Imports and Exports Regulations (Cap 272A, Rg1). If the User encounters problems in submitting the MRS by the approved mode, then the User is to re-submit the MRS to the Director-General via the other authorised modes of delivery as the Director-General deems fit, e.g. manual delivery, and to inform the Director-General of the problem in writing.

8.3 The Director-General reserves the right to add, alter, vary and/or modify any or all of the above terms and conditions at any time. The Director-General shall communicate all such additions, alterations and modifications as soon as practicable to the User and these shall be deemed to be part of these terms and conditions and the User shall be bound by the same.