MANU/CUCR/0025/2021

Ministry : Ministry of Finance

Department/Board : Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs

Circular No. : 24/2021-Customs

Date : 27.10.2021

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.

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 Commis........