to accept imported goods prior to payment of tax and customs duty. These are goods which are imported from other countries. Importers are not permitted to remove goods from the docks or the airport till customs duty is paid. At times, importers are not in a position to pay the duty in full or does not require all the goods immediately.
The goods are kept in bonded warehouses by the customs authorities till the customs duty is paid. These goods are said to be in bond. These warehouses have facilities for branding, packaging, grading and blending. Importers may bring their buyers for inspection of goods and repackage them according to their requirements.
Thus, it facilitates marketing of goods. Goods can be removed in part as and when required by the importers and buyers, and import duty can be paid in instalments. The importer need not block funds for payment of import duties before the goods are sold or used. Even if he wishes to export the goods kept in the bonded warehouse he may do so without payment of customs duty.
Thus, bonded warehouses facilitate entrepot trade. (iv) Government warehouses: These warehouses are fully owned and managed by the government. The government manages them through organisations set up in the public sector. For example, Food Corporation of India, State Trading Corporation, and Central Warehousing Corporation.
(v) Cooperative warehouses: Some marketing cooperative societies or agricultural cooperative socities have set up their own warehouses for members of their cooperative society. Functions of warehousing The functions of warehousing are discussed as follows: (a) Consolidation: In this function the warehouse receives and consolidates, materials/goods from different production plants and dispatches the same to a particular customer on a single transportation shipment. (b) Break the bulk: The warehouse performs the function of dividing the bulk quantity of goods received from the production plants into smaller quantities. These smaller quantities are then transported according to the requirements of clients to their places of business.
Plant B Plant A Consolidation Warehouses A / B / C Plant C PLANT A