Australian Customs Cargo Advice
Number 06/06
Ex-Warehouse Declaration Nature 30 –
Treatment of Warehouse Marks & Numbers
A number of changes to the structure of the Ex-warehousing Declaration Nature 30 were
introduced with the Integrated Cargo System (ICS). Some of these affect the way goods may
be described and identified for delivery purposes on the Authority to Deliver (ATD) for the
declaration. The key differences are summarized in the Table that follows.
Table 1. “Comparison of selected N30 fields between COMPILE and ICS”
Field Parameter
Line information provided
on ATD
COMPILE
ICS
Yes
Yes
Line charge
First ten lines - None
Subsequent lines - $0.20
None
Quantity – maximum value
available per line
Up to 100 billion units (an..11)
Up to 10 billion units
(n10.5)
Goods Description – field size
72 characters
250 characters
Yes – Optional field
VIN (Vehicle Identification
Number) field available
Marks & Numbers –
Optional/Mandatory
Warehouse Marks & Numbers –
field size
Warehouse Marks & Numbers –
field structure
No
Currently up to 10 VIN
available per line.
(Refer to note at end of
this advice.)
Optional
Optional
6125 characters
512 characters
Formatting – eg line breaks –
available
Single string
Current Business Practices - Change of Practice
As can be seen in the Table, there has been a substantial reduction in the number of
characters available in the N30 Warehouse Marks & Numbers field. Some users have built a
business practice of using the Warehouse Marks & Numbers field to record comprehensive
details - descriptions and identifiers/stock numbers - of the subject goods to assist their stock
control processes, particularly for motor vehicles. The new size limit for Warehouse Marks &
Numbers field constrains that practice where large numbers of vehicles are dealt with on one
declaration. Importers or their agents will need to ensure that only data relevant to the
clearance from the warehouse is included in this field.
Options available under the ICS
Noting that the Warehouse Marks & Numbers field remains optional under the ICS, the
following options are available to those ICS users for whom the size of the Warehouse Marks
& Numbers field in ICS is insufficient for their business practice:
1. Importer/broker does not provide any goods identifiers on the declaration but provides
instead a suitable audit trail between the declaration and supporting stock control
records. For example, provide a cross-reference in the Goods Description or
Warehouse Marks & Numbers field to the underlying industry Bond Request or similar
where the goods identifiers and descriptions are included.
(See Line 1 on sample ATD and mock-up Bond Request – Refer ACCA attachments
2006/06a and 2006/06b. Please note this example of an industry report is not
prescriptive in terms of its title or content. The only requirement of the stock record
referenced in the N30 is that it provides the detail required to identify the goods.)
or,
2. Where the client’s business practice requires comprehensive identifying information
for the goods to be included on the declaration, break down lines into 10* units or
fewer and use the Goods Description and/or VIN fields to record identifiers.
(Attached sample N30 ATD - ACCA attachment 2006/06a, provides examples of the
respective options at Lines 1 and 2.)
*NOTE: To also accommodate the small percentage of transactions where more than 10
vehicles are ex-warehoused per line, Customs has undertaken to increase the number of
repeats of VIN available for each line. The maximum is still to be confirmed but will be at least
100. This change will be implemented as soon as possible (target is by March 2006).
Further Information
Further information on this matter can be obtained by contacting Cargo Support on
1300 558 099, or by sending an e-mail to [email protected]
Australian Customs Service
Cargo & Trade Division
CANBERRA
3 February 2006