It goes in under your name, whoever typed it.

Section 79 of the Customs Act, 1969 requires the owner of any imported goods to make entry of them, for home consumption, warehousing or transshipment, within ten days of arrival — three days at a land border station. That entry is made by filing a true declaration of the goods, giving complete and correct particulars, supported by the commercial invoice, the bill of lading or airway bill, and the packing list.

It is filed electronically through the Customs Computerized System, on PSW, by a registered user, and it carries the assessment of duty, taxes and other charges alongside the declaration itself, not as a separate step after it.

A Goods Declaration can be filed by the importer directly or by a customs agent licensed under Section 207, acting on written authority from the importer under Section 208. Section 209 then does something specific: it deems the agent to be the principal for the purposes of that filing, but only "without prejudice to the liability of the principal." The importer's liability does not transfer to the agent. It sits alongside it.

There is a proviso to that same section protecting the agent: where duty is not levied, is short-levied, or is refunded in error for a reason other than the agent's own willful act, negligence or default, that duty is not recovered from the agent. Read the two halves together and the position is plain. The agent can be made to answer for a mistake that is genuinely the agent's. Everything else — a wrong value, a wrong classification, a description that does not match what actually shipped — is the importer's exposure, because Section 79 places the duty to make a correct entry on the owner of the goods, not on whoever typed the form.

Section 32 of the Act reaches the same place from the enforcement side. Where a declaration or statement turns out false in a material particular and duty has gone unlevied or short-levied because of it, the person served with the notice to show cause and pay is the person liable for that duty — the importer.

Under Section 80, an officer of Customs checks the declaration for the correctness of the particulars, the classification and the assessment. If anything in it is found incorrect, the goods are reassessed, with notice served through the Customs Computerized System and a hearing offered if the importer wants one. Examination itself runs on computerized selectivity; a declaration cleared through the green channel can still be examined, but only with the Collector's prior approval.

Where an officer cannot settle the assessment because the goods need a chemical test or a further inquiry, Section 81 allows a provisional determination instead — the importer pays on that provisional basis, or secures the difference with a bank guarantee or pay order, until the final figure is settled. Clearance itself happens under Section 83, once the goods have been assessed under Section 80 or Section 81 and the duty is paid.

A declaration is not something you revise afterward if the goods have moved on. Section 29 blocks any amendment to the declared value, quantity or description once the goods have left the customs area, or once a Customs Reference Number has been assigned electronically. Whatever is on it at that point is what stands.