Customs Law Manual by RK Jain (Set of 2 Vols.) – 76th Edition 2026-27

Description

R.K. Jain’s Customs Law Manual is the definitive consolidated reference on Indian customs law, assembling the complete statutory, subordinate, allied, and procedural framework governing import, export, and cross-border trade into a single, internally cross-referenced two-volume set. In continuous publication since 1986, it is the standard desk authority for the customs bar, the trade, and the Department alike.

Two features set this Edition apart. First, it opens with a substantial authored treatise—the Overview of Customs Law & FTP—which explains the entire scheme of the law in narrative form before the black-letter text begins, and expressly cross-references the CBIC Customs Manual in Part 7. Second, the new CBIC’s Customs Manual 2025—the Department’s own consolidated procedural compendium—is reproduced in full alongside its latest instructions, circulars, and public notices. The Manual therefore moves the reader from the policy rationale, to the statutory provision, to the operative notification and prescribed form, and finally to the Department’s working procedure, without leaving the set.

This Manual is intended for stakeholders who require statutory certainty, procedure accuracy, and defensible interpretation in Customs matters, including:

• Customs and Indirect-Tax Practitioners, Advocates, and Counsel appearing before adjudicating authorities, the Commissioner (Appeals), CESTAT, the High Courts, and the Supreme Court
• Chartered Accountants, Cost Accountants, and Company Secretaries advising on duty, valuation, classification, drawback, and trade compliance
• Customs Brokers and Licensed Clearing Agents, and their qualified employees
• Importers, Exporters, EOUs, SEZ Units and Developers, and trade-compliance, valuation, and logistics teams
• Officers of the Customs Department, DRI, and the Allied Adjudication and enforcement wings
• In-House Legal, Tax, and Supply-Chain Functions of manufacturing, trading, and multinational enterprises
• Academicians and Candidates Preparing for Professional and Departmental Examinations in customs and international trade law

The Present Publication is the 76^th Edition | 2026-27, amended by the Finance Act 2026 and updated till 15^th May 2026. This book is edited by Centax’s Editorial Board with the following noteworthy features:

• [Authored Overview] A standalone editorial treatise on the whole of customs law and the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 opens the work, integrating statutory provisions with departmental circulars and FTP 2023 paragraph citations, so the framework can be understood as a system before individual provisions are consulted
• [Statute Paired with Departmental Procedure] The new CBIC’s Customs Manual 2025 is reproduced in full and read together with the latest supplementary instructions, circulars, and public notices, placing each substantive provision beside its administrative application
• [Annotated Bare Act] The Customs Act 1962 is presented section by section, chapter-wise, with superscript footnotes carrying amendment history and source notes, allowing the current text and its legislative evolution to be read together
• [Current to the Latest Reforms] Fully updated for the Finance Act 2026 and developments up to 15^th May 2026 and carrying the Finance Act 2025 changes such as the abolition of the Settlement Commission (w.e.f. 1-4-2025) and the electronic refund procedure
• [Single Integrated Reference] Acts, rules, regulations, notifications, forms, bonds, allied laws, departmental procedure, and SEZ law are consolidated into one continuously maintained set, removing the need to consult disconnected sources
• [Built-In Finding Aids] A detailed acronyms table, section-wise and rule-wise contents, a chapter-wise procedural index, and a chronological notification locator (separately for the Ministry of Finance and the Customs Commissionerates) support rapid navigation and audit
• [Continuity of Authority] The 76^th Edition of a title in print since 1986, maintaining the editorial reliability and cross-referencing discipline on which the customs community has long relied

The volume-wise coverage of the book is as follows:

• Editorial Overview and Trade Context
  • A narrative treatise covering: levy and exemption of duty; customs valuation of imports and exports; assessment, self-assessment, Risk Management System (RMS), Post-Clearance Audit (PCA), and provisional assessment; import, export, baggage, courier, and postal procedures; warehousing and manufacture-in-bond; exemptions, Project Imports, and Preferential/Free Trade Agreements; remission, re-import, and re-export; departmental adjudication; demands and recovery; refunds (including the electronic refund procedure effective 1-4-2025); enforcement powers (summons, arrest, search, seizure); offences, punishments, and compounding; appeals and revision up to the Supreme Court; and an Overview of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 (DGFT administration, deemed exports, quality complaints and trade disputes)
• Core Statutory and Subordinate Law
  • The complete Customs Act 1962, section by section, as amended, with amendment-history footnotes
  • The full body of Customs Rules and Regulations—valuation, warehousing, drawback, baggage, courier, manufacture-in-bond, sea/air cargo manifest, customs broker licensing, and related rules
  • Appeal, Revision and Appellate Tribunal’s Rules, Notifications and Orders
  • The complete set of Notifications issued under the Customs Act 1962
• Forms, Bonds, and Operational Instruments
  • The prescribed library of Customs Forms & Bonds (numbered to Form 195), spanning Bills of Entry, Shipping Bills and Bills of Export, transhipment and transit instruments, courier bills, drawback statements, electronic cash and duty-payment ledgers, registration and authorised-importer applications, and baggage and currency declarations
• Allied Legislation
  • Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992, with the Foreign Trade (Regulation) Rules 1993, the Exemption Order 1993, and FTDR notifications
  • Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 2023
  • Tea Act 1953; Coffee Act 1942; Live-stock Importation Act 1898; and Post Office Act 2023 (relevant extracts)
  • Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act 1974 (COFEPOSA)
  • Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999, with the FEM (Export of Goods and Services) Regulations 2026 and the FEM (Current Account Transactions) Rules 2000
  • Safeguard Measures (Quantitative Restrictions) Rules 2012
  • Customs Tariff Act 1975, and Validating Provisions relating to the Customs Act 1962
• Departmental Procedure — CBIC’s Customs Manual 2025
  • Overview of Customs Functions; arrival of conveyances; clearance of imported and export goods; Faceless Assessment; classification of goods; classification/assessment of Project Imports, baggage, and postal imports; customs valuation; provisional assessment; import/export restrictions and prohibitions; warehousing; transhipment and consolidation of cargo; merchant overtime fee; less-charge demand; refunds under the Customs and IGST Acts; detention, release, and storage of goods; import/export through courier and post; import of samples; re-importation and re-exportation; disposal of unclaimed/uncleared cargo; Intellectual Property Rights; Duty Drawback; Export Promotion Schemes; Special Economic Zones; Export Oriented Units; international passenger facilitation; ICDs/CFSs/AFSs; Customs Cargo Service Providers; Customs Brokers; offences and penal provisions; appeal, review, and settlement of cases; grievance redressal; audit; the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) Programme; and customs functions related to preferential trade agreements—together with the Master Supplementary Instructions, circulars, and public notices
• Special Economic Zones
  • Special Economic Zones Act 2005; SEZ Rules 2006; SEZ Authority Rules 2009; and the prescribed SEZ Forms
• Notification Finder
  • Chronological lists of all customs notifications issued by the Ministry of Finance and by the Customs Commissionerates

The work is organised into nine Parts across two volumes, progressing from the editorial overview through primary statute, subordinate law, forms, allied legislation, departmental procedure, and SEZ law, and closing with a chronological notification locator.

• Volume 1 — Acts, Rules, Regulations, Notifications & Overview of Customs Law & FTP
  • A table of acronyms and the Overview of Customs Law & FTP treatise
  • Part 1 — Customs Act 1962
  • Part 2 — Customs Rules and Regulations
  • Part 3 — Appeal, Revision and Appellate Tribunal’s Rules, Notifications and Orders
  • Part 4 — Notifications issued under the Customs Act 1962
• Volume 2 — Forms, Allied Laws, SEZ, Circulars, Public Notices & Clarifications
  • Part 5 — Customs Forms & Bonds
  • Part 6 — Allied Acts, Rules and Regulations
  • Part 7 — CBIC’s Customs Manual with Latest Instructions/Circulars
  • Part 8 — Special Economic Zones
  • Part 9 — Chronological List of Notifications issued under the Customs Act 1962, by the Finance Ministry and Customs Commissionerate
• This architecture allows any provision to be traced end-to-end: from the explanatory overview, to the section in Part 1, to the governing rule in Part 2, to the operative notification in Parts 4 and 9, to the prescribed form in Part 5, and to the working procedure in the CBIC Manual in Part 7