(a) Upon receipt of appropriate customs entry and a photocopy of a permit, Form 5150.33 or previous editions on Form 1444 (5150.33), the district director of customs shall, following an inspection of the shipment, release spirits free of tax to the Government agency named on the permit, or an attachment thereto.
(b) Customs officers shall not release spirits for shipment until the shipment has been inspected for losses in transit. If it appears that a container or containers have sustained losses in transit, the customs officers shall gauge the damaged container and prepare a package gauge record for the entire shipment, according to Sec. 27.139. A copy of the package gauge record will be retained for the customs files and the original forwarded to the consignee agency. (Sec. 201, Pub. L. 85-859, 72 Stat. 1375, as amended (26 U.S.C. 5313))