Customs Officers must go by FTA Trade Agreement and Rules of Origin,
going beyond these is not Advisable, Orders Board
[CBIC Instruction No. 19/2022-Customs dated 17 August
2022]
Subject: Applying CAROTAR maintaining consistency with the
provisions of relevant trade agreement or its Rules of Origin.
Subsequent to the insertion of Section 28DA in Customs Act, 1962 on 27.3.2020, the CBIC
Notification No. 81/2020-Customs
(NT) dated 21.08.2020 notified the Customs (Administration of Rules
of Origin under Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020.
2. Further, as you are also aware, the operational
certification procedures related to implementation of Rules of Origin (pertaining
to each trade agreement - FTA/ PTA/ CECA/ CECA/ CECPA), stand separately
notified under Section 5 of Customs Tariff Act, 1975.
3.1 For uniform and judicious application of provisions, the
Board has previously issued Circular No.38/2020-Customs dated 21.08.2020,
Instruction No.20/2020-Customs dated 17.12.2020 & No.18/2021-Customs dated
17.08.2021, and letter F.No.15021/18/2020(ICD) dated 13.11.2020.
3.2 In continuation of the same, field formations
are sensitized by drawing attention again to section 28DA. It is emphasized that
its sub-section (3) empowers the proper officer to ask the importer to furnish
further information, consistent with the trade agreement, in case the proper
officer has reasons to believe that the country-of-origin criteria have
not been met. Similarly, its sub-section (4) enables the proper officer,
where the importer fails to provide the requisite information for any reason,
to cause further verification consistent with the trade agreement. Moreover,
in the Rules, the rule 8 (3) states - “In the event of a conflict between
a provision of these rules and a provision of the Rules of Origin, the
provision of the Rules of Origin shall prevail to the extent of the conflict.”
4. Hence, the Officers under your charge should be
sensitive to applying CAROTAR maintaining consistency with the provisions of
relevant trade agreement or its Rules of Origin.
F. No. 456/319/2021-Cus.V (Pt.)