The CBIC is the nodal national agency that administers Customs, GST, Central Excise, Service Tax & Narcotics in India. CBIC stands for the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and it released a circular concerning the provisional clearance of Goods under India’s Trade Agreements on 04th May 2020.
The CBIC in this circular pointed a previous Circular 18/2020-Customs, dated 11th April 2020, which engrave an option under preferential tariff claim to clear goods, as per the section 18 of the Customs Act, 1962, in which a CoO which stands for Certificate of Origin is not accessible at the time of customs documents filing.
The issued circular elaborate that “This measure has been taken, keeping in view the restrictions imposed globally, which may lead to a situation wherein an exporter is unable to communicate original CoO to the importer or submits a CoO which is not as per the prescribed format (digitally signed/unsigned),”.
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The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs also issued all the necessary guidelines through the Circular 38/2016-Customs, of 22nd August 2016, directing the manner as well as the amount of security on the basis of the importer’s class and nature of the import.
That Circular also includes Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) or Public Transportation Assistance (PTAs) imports according to the 3 categories i.e. S.no 5(a), 5(b), and 5(c).
The CIBIC also observed that “It is informed that where the original hard copy of the Certificate of Origin (CoO) has not been submitted or only digitally signed copy or unsigned copy of CoO is submitted, the same may be treated at par with the category as listed at serial no. 5(c) of the Circular 38/2016-Customs, provided that the matter is not covered under 5(a), wherein there is a reasonable belief that it involves mis-declaration of origin/value addition,”
