History & Jurisdiction:

The Guntur Collectorate (now Guntur Commissionerate) was formed in the year 1972 and the Visakhapatnam Collectorate (now Visakhapatnam Commissionerate) in 1990. All the Commissionerates of erstwhile Hyderabad, Guntur and Vishakhapatnam Commissionerates were under a single Zone. Consequent to cadre restructuring in 2002, two Zones were formed (i) Hyderabad Zone covering all the districts of Telangana region (ii) Visakhapatnam Zone covering remaining districts of Rayalaseema and Coastal districts of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

Again, CBEC has reviewed the requirement of manpower and restructured the cadres in the year 2014 (incidentally the State of Andhra Pradesh was divided into two States viz., Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the same year) by creating the separate Commissionerates of Customs, Central Excise, Appeals and Audit in Visakhaptanam Zone.

Consequent upon restructuring of Central Excise and Customs Department, Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Vijayawada, under Visakhapatnam Zone, came into existence w.e.f. 15.10.2014, vide Notification No.78/2014-Cus-NT, dated 16-09-2014 by the Government of India. The jurisdiction of the Commissionerate has been defined by the Chief Commissioner of Customs & Central Tax vide Public Notice No.1/2014/General No.2/2014, dated 07.10.2014. It has been formed out of Guntur Central Excise & Customs Commissioner, Guntur.

Customs Commissionerate [Preventive], Vijayawada is an hinter land Customs Commissionerate, having mainly preventive and anti-smuggling functions in addition to normal Customs functions. The Commissionerate is having vast jurisdiction, spread over all districts of entire Andhra Pradesh except Greater Visakhapatnam city. The total coastline is about 950 Kms long.

The jurisdiction for the field formations under this Commissionerate was notified vide Public Notice No.1/2014, dated 18.11.2014.

The Commissionerate, having its headquarters at Vijayawada, looks after all Customs Work, Preventive and Anti-Smuggling in the thirteen Districts of Andhra Pradesh, other than the Jurisdiction of Visakhapatnam Customs House [Greater Vizag City].

The Tirupathi Customs Division looks after the Customs Preventive anti Smuggling Work within the Districts of Chittor, Kadapa, Ananthapur, Kurnool and Nellore.

The Kakinada Customs Division looks after the Customs Preventive Anti Smuggling Work within the Districts of West Godavari and East Godavari.

The Visakhapatnam Customs Division looks after the Customs Preventive Anti Smuggling Work within the Districts of Viskhapatnam, Vijayanagaram and Srikakulum.

The Customs Preventive Units look after Customs Preventive and Anti Smuggling Work including Sea Patrolling, Coastal Patrolling and Surveillance. There are total 5 CPUs (Customs Preventive Units).

Organizational Set-up:

The Commissionerate is having two major ports, i.e. Krishnapatnam Port and Kakinada port. There are also minor ports at Machilipatnam, Chirala

The Commissionerate is also having two Container Freight Stations at Muthukur, two Inland Container Depots one at Marripalem and another at Reddypalem, Guntur.

This Commissionerate is having Vijayawada International Airport at Gannavarm looking after import and export of goods through air. The airport came into the International air traffic map w.e.f.18-10-2018. The Air Intelligence Unit spearheads the anti-smuggling operations at the Airport.

There is exist one Foreign Post Office, in Vijayawada. The Postal Appraising Department handles the articles imported and exported through Post, which function in close liaison with the Postal Authorities.

There are three Customs Divisions, namely Tirupathi Division, Kakinada Division and Visakhapatnam Division. The three Divisions having lower formations i.e. Customs Preventive Units at Ongole, Nellore, Kurnool, Narasapur and Srikakulam and all these are looking after mainly preventive functions.

To combat the menace of smuggling in the region, the Commissionerate has 1 (one) Headquarters Preventive Unit, (three) Divisional Preventive Units attached to the Division and 5 (Five) Customs Preventive Units (CPUs)

Trade Facilitation Cells have been created, at Head Quarters Office, Vijayawada, at all Divisional Head Quarters for facilitating the import and export trade in ease of doing business through customs and matters relating to self sealing of containers.