DGFT To Disallow Export/Import Without Standard UQCs From Nov 01, 2020

Mumbai, 17 Sept 2020:

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has announced that it will not allow exports/imports without standard Unit Quantity Codes (UQCs) from November 1, 2020. The directorate has taken this step to streamline standardization of UQCs for purposes of export/import declarations filed on its Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Customs’ ICEGATE.

Under the EDI system, the Shipping Bill has to be submitted in the prescribed format at the customs service centers. It is accompanied by copies of the invoice and packing list. Launched by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, ICEGATE (Indian Customs Electronic Gateway) provides e-filing services, including electronic filing of Shipping Bills. ICEGATE is linked with multiple organizations like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), DGFT, government ministries, and government partner agencies.

The exporters having old advance and EPCG authorizations can export against such authorizations till October 30, 2020 by submitting Shipping Bills in the non-standard units. After November 1, 2020, exports/imports without standard UQCs will not be permitted, stated DGFT in a circular on September 14, 2020.

The standard UQCs are cubic meter, cubic centimeter, centimeter, carat, dozen, feet, GRM fissile isotope, grams, gross, gross yards, hanks, inches, kilogram activity, kilograms, kiloliter, kilowatt hour, pounds, liters, milli grams, meter, metric ton, numbers, pieces, pairs, quintal, sets, square feet, square inches, square meter, square yards, tablets, thousands, thousand kilowatt HR, units, vials, yards.

It was noted that many importers and exporters use UQCs like BGS, BTL, BOX, CTN, GGR, HPT, KPC, ODD and DRM etc. which are neither stipulated in the Customs Tariff Act nor prevalent in the normal business transactions. These nonconvertible/inappropriate UQCs lead to a poor quality of data capture and related implications.

As a first measure, declaration of quantities in Statistical UQCs (SQCs) as prescribed under the Tariff Act have been made mandatory in both imports (since February 2019) and exports (since February 2020) for every item in addition to the quantities declared in the commercial units as per the invoice. The SQC declarations are being captured in the single window table of the Bills of Entry and Shipping Bills.

In order to further improve data quality, even among the commercial UQCs declared for the items as per the invoice, Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House (JNCH) on August 18, 2020 came out with a circular stating that only above mentioned UQCs would be permitted in Bills of Entry and Shipping Bills from August 20, 2020. Declarations in any other UQC will not be accepted.

The circular issued by JNCH Mumbai has resulted in difficulties for exporters in complying with the standard UQCs in their old advance and EPCG authorizations which have been issued with quantity units that do not match with the standard UQCs being adopted.

In order to address this issue, the DGFT has decided that no new authorizations mentioning non-standard units such as BoU, packs, boxes cartons and bottles etc would be issued by regional authorities. For this necessary changes are being carried out in the DGFT EDI system also, it said.

In order to ensure that exports do not suffer in the meanwhile, for the authorizations already issued and carrying any non —standard units such as BoU, packs, boxes cartons and bottles etc, customs have been requested to allow exports against such authorizations till October 30, 2020 by accepting exporter’s Shipping Bills in the UQCs provided in ICEGATE, said the directorate.

In the meanwhile, such authorization holders are requested to approach concerned regional authorities and get the non -standard units indicated in their authorizations in the import and export quantities, converted to standard quantity units. In case regional authorities face any difficulty in carrying out these amendments, they will get in touch with the concerned Norms Committee (NC) in headquarters, it added. Pharmabiz