The Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a retrospective certificate of origin under India’s trade agreement on account of lockdown due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a circular on Monday addressing all the Regional Authorities of DGFT, Customs Commissioners, members of trade and industry, Joint Secretary of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), the ministry of trade and commerce and the other ministries of trading partners specified the retrospective issuance of a certificate of origin under India’s trade agreement in the light of exceptional circumstances caused by the lockdown or curfew in India due to Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The circular is being issued in order to address the query raised by the way of application through digital platforms.
“All these applications will be processed by the authorized agencies of India and the digitally signed copies and digitally signed copies transmitted to the applicants. The physical copies of these certificates signed by the agencies authorized to issue these certificates of origin could be issued once the office of these agencies open,” the circular said.
The circular urged all the authorized Indian agencies to levy the prescribed fee of Rs. 600 for the preferential certificates, irrespective of the fact that whether they are retrospective or not.
“India would also stand ready to honour its preferential trade agreement and would clear consignments provisionally with digitally signed certificates or physical certificates unsigned by the competent authority. These consignments would be cleared provisionally at preferential duty with other conditions of submission such as a bond or undertaking and appropriate security where required by customs,” the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) said in a circular.
India requested trading partners with whom India has a trade agreement that in the interim period, the customs authorities and other competent authorities in the trading partners may allow the eligible imports under preferences on a retrospective basis subject to the subsequent production of the certificates of origin by the Indian exporters.
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