In October 2020, India’s Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a notice regarding the electronic filing and issuance of Preferential Certificate of Origin (CoO) for the country’s exports.
As per this notice, the electronic platform for Preferential CoO is being expanded to add four more FTAs/PTAs:
- Generalised System of Preferences (GSP)
- Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP)
- India Malaysia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (IMCECA)
- India Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (ISCECA)
It comes into effect from 15th October 2020.
This e-platform provides a single-point access for all FTAs/PTAs, and for all designated CoO issuing agencies for all export products from India.
It is accessible at https://coo.dgft.gov.in.
The notice further clarified that CoO applications for exports under GSP may also be submitted through the platform from 15th October 2020. The earlier process of physically submitting CoO applications to GSP will continue to remain in operation as well for a transition period of 3 months.
For applications under the FTAs/PTAs, the e- CoO system will generate all the existing set of CoO copies along with an additional e-copy which will bear the image signature of the officer and stamp of the issuing agency. The exporter can get the remaining copies duly ink-signed by the issuing officer with the stamp from the designated issuing office. The copies of the CoOs may be collected by post or in person to be submitted to the FTAs/PTAs partner countries authorities.
The DGFT notice also included the following points:
- A Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) would be required for electronic verification.
- The DSC may be Class II or Class III and should have the IEC of the firm embedded in the DSC.
- New applicant exporters are required to register on the e-platform with their email address and mobile number: https://dgft.gov.in
Once the application is completed, the IEC branch details would be auto-populated as per the DGFT-IEC database. Applicants must ensure that updated IEC details are available in the DGFT system.
Disclaimer: The information is provided purely for informational and educational purposes only. It should not be misconstrued as legal advice. Taxguru cannot take any responsibility for the result or consequences of any attempt to use or adopt any of the information presented herein.
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