MANU/DGFT/0077/2019

Ministry : Ministry of Commerce and Industry

Department/Board : DGFT

Policy Circular No. : 23/2015-2020

Date : 15.05.2019

To

All Regional Authorities of DGFT
All Exporters/Members of Trade

Non-requirement of submission of Hard Copy of application at RAs for issue of Advance Authorisation and EPCG Authorisation

Attention is invited to Para 4.02(ii) of HBP 2015-20 which explicitly states that "Applicant shall upload documents as prescribed in ANF 4A, if any, at the time of online filing of application. No physical copy of application is required to be submitted to Regional Authority." However it has been observed that almost every RA asks for the hard copy of the application and Advance Authorisation/EPCG is processed on receipt of hard copy only. Main reason was that facility to upload documents in the online ECOM application was not available.

2. To remove the time lag between online application and receipt of hard copy in the DGFT Regional Authority (RA), NIC has now created an 'upload document' facility in the Advance Authorisation & EPCG ECOM modules.

3. Therefore with effect from 20th May 2019, all exporters filing online AA & EPCG applications will, in addition, need to upload supporting documents also as prescribed in ANF/FTP/HBP. With the use of this facility, exporters will not be required to submit hard copy of the AA/EPCG application and its related documents to the DGFT RA.

4. RAs would examine/process such ECOM applications based on the information & documents filed online by the exporter and issue AA/EPCG within the laid down timelines of 3 working days.

5. In cases where the basic prescribed documents have not been uploaded online by the exporter or in exceptional cases where additional document/information is needed for further clarity or decision making, RA may issue an online deficiency letter. Exporter can log in the Online ECOM module and view the deficiency raised online. Although the exporter can submit the reply in writing at the RA counter/post but for a quick response from the RA, it is desirable that exporter also submits the deficiency reply by email to the official email id of the concerned RA [with RA File no. in the subject line] along with necessary scanned documents as attachments.

6. Exporters may ........