Practical Guide to SAP GTS Part 3: Bonded Warehouse, Foreign Trade Zone, and Duty Drawback

2.1 Transit process and transit procedure

2.1.1 T1 and T2 transit procedure

If we create a transit procedure along with a customs export declaration, for example, to transport duty-unpaid products in customs procedures with economic impact for export, we can transport these goods to the customs border with this increased security.

Non-community goods are transported in the T1 transit procedure, while community goods are transported in the T2 transit procedure:

T1 transit procedure: Transport of non-community goods between two locations in the community or among the community, EFTA countries, and Romania.

T2 transit procedure: Transport of community goods between two locations in the community via an EFTA country; transport of community goods among the community, EFTA countries, and Romania.

The transit procedure simplifies export processing, as the goods need not be presented at the border customs office (export customs office). The goods only have to be presented at the office of departure, which is usually an inland customs office. At the office of departure, the transit declaration is submitted. The office of departure checks the authenticity of the goods and releases them for export.

The New Computerized Transit System (NCTS) allows the transit procedure to be processed using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). It is based on a UN standard for EDI communication and is used in all European Commission (EC) member states and in Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.

Every participating country has developed its own data processing system under detailed specifications from the EC. All the data is combined in a network in Brussels. In Germany, the NCTS is part of the ATLAS system, the IT procedure of the Federal Customs Administration (FCA) (special procedure ATLAS transit).

GTS, with converters from the Seeburger, has been certified for NCTS access by the customs administrations in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Participants also need a customs number for their company-specific data and a business identification number (BIN), which serves as an electronic signature.

2.1.2 Open transit procedure

To send a declaration to the competent transit customs office as shown in Figure 2.1, you have to process the transaction shown in Figure 2.2 in SAP Customs Management. This document, which contains all the data required to process the transit procedure electronically, can be created automatically by replicating the billing documents from the SAP R/3 or SAP ECC feeder system. It can also be created manually in GTS without reference to a document in the feeder system.

Procedure to create a transit document in GTS

SAP GTS Area Menu • Customs Management • Export • Transit • Create and maintain Customs Shipments.

Figure 2.1: Display transit procedure: Export

The customs shipment is created in selected the foreign trade organization.

Customs shipments which are created in GTS can be monitored in t-code /SAPSLL/CL_CP_TRS_EX. This can be accessed in path SAP GTS Area Menu • Customs Management • Export • Transit • Operative cockpit • Display outbound activities.

Figure 2.2: Display outbound activities

GTS will display all the open customs shipment as shown in Figure 2.3. You can also see the different activities within the transit procedure document in Figure 2.4 .

Figure 2.3: Activities within transit procedure

Figure 2.4: Transit shipment

The document is completed with all the required data and processed by executing the process as shown in Figure 2.5. Customs processes the response, and it is updated in GTS as per the following screen.

Figure 2.5: Display customs shipment – transit

2.1.3 Discharging transit procedure

When saving an inbound delivery, the feeder system finds that the previous document type T1 and a so-called Movement Reference Number (MRN) has been entered in the document, and it replicates (depending on the other Customizing settings) the inbound delivery in GTS as shown in Figure 2.6. The data in the purchasing document and inbound delivery that is required for further processing is copied to the customs document.

Discharging transit procedure

Create an inbound delivery regarding the purchase order in VL31N t-code and enter the MRN number at header – foreign trade customs – preml. doc tab.

Figure 2.6: Shipping notification display

When we save the inbound delivery as shown in Figure 2.7, it is created in GTS. This can be checked in t-code /SAPSLL/CL_CP_TRS_IM

This can be accessed in path SAP GTS Area Menu • Customs Management • Import • Transit • Operative cockpit • Display inbound activities.

Figure 2.7: Transit procedure activities

Check for incompleteness and process the arrival notification message M3730. Customs will send another message unloading permission, and we will provide an unloading comment and process message to customs. You will find the safekeeping message in the inbound IDoc list after you process the unloading comment message as shown in Figure 2.8. This inbound message will trigger a presentation document. Based on this MRN number in the transit declaration, middleware generates the item details and adds them to the presentation document.

Figure 2.8: Change customs shipment – transit