The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) notified the amendment in Circular No. 38/2016-Customs with the insertion of a new entry 5(d) to enable Principal Commissioners or Commissioners of Customs to decide the amount of security required in certain cases of provisional assessments.
Reference is drawn to Board’s Circular no. 38/2016-Customs dated 22.08.2016, which provides guidelines for provisional assessment under section 18 of the Customs Act 1962. Reference is also drawn to Circular no. 18/2020-Customs dated 11.04.2020, which allows provisional clearance of goods imported under India’s Trade Agreements without original Certificate of Origin (CoO) in certain situations. The said Circular 18/2020-Customs was issued to mitigate the difficulties faced by importers in producing original CoO at the time of import clearance owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It provides import consignments. where preferential treatment of goods under a Free Trade Agreement has been claimed but the original hard copy of CoO has not been submitted or only digitally signed copy or unsigned copy of CoO is submitted, may be assessed and cleared provisionally in terms of section 18 of the Customs Act, 1962; the final assessment may be done subsequently on submission of the original CoO by the importer, and the revenue may be secured through undertaking and appropriate security.
In order to rectify the situation and facilitate legitimate trade impacted by the pandemic, Circular 38/2016-Customs is further amended.
Entry at serial no. 5(c) of Table at paragraph 3 of the said Circular 38/2016-Customs is substituted with a new entry which says that 100% Security Amount to be obtained in cases of Cases related to verification signatures and seals under FTAS, where there is a doubt regarding genuineness or authenticity of the certificate of origin for reasons such as mismatch of signatures or seal when compared with specimens of seals and signatures received from the exporting country in terms of the agreement.
Further, 100% Security Amount shall be obtained in Cases related to verification signatures and seals under FTAS, where there is a doubt regarding genuineness or authenticity of the certificate of origin for reasons such as mismatch of signatures or seal when compared with specimens of seals and signatures received from the exporting country in terms of the agreement.
No Security Amount shall be obtained in Cases of Imports by Authorised Economic Operators.
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