"Custom House Agent" means a person licensed, temporarily or otherwise, under the regulations made under sub-section (2) of Section 146 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962), [Section 65(35)].
The services rendered by the custom house agent are not merely limited to the clearing of the import and export consignment. The CHA also renders the service of loading/unloading of import or export goods from/at the premises of the exporter/importer, the packing, weighment, measurement of the export goods, the transportation of the export goods to the customs station or the import goods from the custom station to the importers premises, carrying out of various statutory and other formalities such as payment of expenses on account of octroi, destuffing /pelletisation terminal handling, fumigation, drawback/DEEC processing, survey /amendment fees, dock fees, repairing and examination charges, landing and container charges, statutory labour charges, testing fees, drug control formalities, sorting /marking/stamping/sealing on behalf of the exporter/ importer. The custom house agent incur various other expenses such as crane/fork lift charges, taxi charges, Photostat and fax charges, bank collection charges, courier service charges, and miscellaneous other expenses on account of the importer /exporter. For all the above charges, the CHA is ordinarily reimbursed by the importer/ exporter for whom the above services are rendered. Apart from the above charges, the CHA also charges the client for his services under the head /nomenclature of “agency and attendance charges “ or similar kind of heads which is purported to be his service charge in respect of the services rendered in relation to the import/export goods.
There are various Custom House Agent Associations which are currently running down their exertion in India. Indian Agri Trade portal provide extensive list of almost all CHA’s around various location of India. One can get their contact details by searching CHA’s name or by state.