Circular No. 24/2021-Customs
F. No: 451/22/2020-CusV
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
oko
Room No. 49, North Block
Dated 27" October, 2021
To
All Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners of Customs/Customs
(Preventive),
All Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners of Central Tax and Customs,
All Principal Commissioners/Commissioners of Customs /Custom (Preventive),
All Principal Commissioners/Commissioners of Central Tax and Customs.
Subject: Reducing compliance burden regarding registration of Authorised Couriers
As part of reducing the compliance burden on stakeholders, the Central Board of
Indirect Taxes and Customs has taken measures to simplify the registration requirements
of Authorised Couriers. In this regard, attention is invited to Notifications no.86/2021-
Customs (N.T.) and 85/2021-Customs (N.T.) both dated 27.10.2021, which have amended
the Courier Imports and Exports (Clearance) Regulations, 1998 and the Courier Imports
and Exports (Electronic Declaration and Processing) Regulations, 2010 respectively.
2. In brief, these amendments provide lifetime validity to a registration, in place of the
existing system of validity-periods and renewals. They also provide for voluntary surrender
of registration. While enabling a deemed invalidity of registration in case the Authorised
Courier is inactive for a continuous period of 1 year, at a time, these also empower the
Principal Commissioner or Commissioner to renew such a registration. Such deemed
invalidation provision will be applied prospectively. These aspects are expected to bring
greater certainty to the Authorised Couriers and support them to focus on their core
business and spur trust-based compliance.
It has also been decided that the Board will review (in April 2022) these aspects to
bring modifications, if found necessary.
3.1 An aspect which has come to notice is that an Authorised Courier after getting
registered at one/the first Customs Station, has also been registered at other Customs
Stations for transacting business at such other Customs Stations.
3.2 In this matter, the existing regulations are clear that once registered at a particular
Customs Station, the Authorised Courier, for transacting business elsewhere, needs to only
give the appropriate intimation to the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner of
Customs having jurisdiction over the other Customs Station and furnish Bond/Security as
prescribed at each such location. Herein, attention is drawn to Regulation 7(2) read with
Regulation 12 of the Courier Imports and Exports (Clearance) Regulations, 1998 or
Regulation 10(7) read with Regulation 11(2) of the Courier Imports and Exports
(Electronic Declaration and Processing) Regulations, 2010.
3.3 The duplication/existence of multiple registrations under either Regulation i.e., the
Courier Imports and Exports (Clearance) Regulations, 1998 or the Courier Imports and
Exports (Electronic Declaration and Processing) Regulations, 2010 needs to be rationalised
such that the first of such registrations under the respective Regulation is taken as the single
registration and the others are regularised in terms of the intimation procedure under those
regulations. While reviewing and rationalising this aspect, the process and procedure
adopted should be smooth, facilitative and not dislocative to the normal business of the
Authorised Couriers. In this regard the DG Systems has been requested to assist the
Commissioners in identifying multiple and the first registrations insofar as the ECCS is
concerned. Due coordination with other locations maybe kept by the Principal
Commissioner or Commissioner concerned.
In this connection, it is also informed that instances have come to notice where a
revocation of the registration of an Authorised Courier has not been intimated to other
Customs Stations. It is guided that the practise of communicating such decisions to other
Customs Stations notified for Courier operations should be put in place apart from
informing the Nodal Officer(s) designated by DG Systems and DG ARM.
4. Any difficulty faced in implementation maybe brought to notice of the Board.
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(Komilé Punia
Deputy Secretary
(Email: diricd-cbec@nic.in)
