Circular No. ES/77/2020-21 27th April, 2020
To: Members of the Council
Sub: DGFT laid down procedure to be followed for RAs on Extensions in Import Validity period & Export obligation period in AA/DFIA
Dear Member,
You may be aware that O/o DGFT had issued Notification No. 57/2015-20 dated 31.03.2020 and Public Notice 67/2015-20 dated 31.03.2020 extending the Import Validity period and Export obligation period in Advance authorizations/DFIA in view of COVID-19.
In this regard, O/o DGFT now issued Policy Circular No. 35/2015-20 dated 23/04/2020 guiding RAs and Exporters with the process so that the same is functioning smoothly between DGFT as well as Customs.
In this regard, the following procedural formalities may be followed by DGFT RAs and Trade which are as under:-
A) Automatic Extension of Import Validity period and EO period by 6 months for AAs under HBP Para 4.41(e) and Para 4.42(h) where no revalidation/EO period extension has been granted till date:
- In all such cases where the facility of first or second extension in the import validity period or the EO extension period has not been availed by the exporter earlier, the revised or the extended import validity/EO period, as per the relaxations permitted would be updated in the ICEGATE/Customs System automatically based on a defined protocol between the DGFT-NIC/Customs in this regard.
- Once the bulk updation and transmission of authorizations have been done by NIC Division, NIC would send an RA-wise list of such authorizations to individual RAs with an update script to be run on the local server (available in the Downloads section of the local server).
- All RAs are required to run this script immediately so that any further extensions/re-validations on the authorizations would take into account this change in the local RA server also.
- In case of some individual cases, where the revised updated import validity or EO extension is not available in the ICEGATE, the exporter may approach the DGFT RA with an email/letter request for carrying out an amendment in the AA/DFIA.
- DGFT RA will accordingly examine the request expeditiously and endorse the extended validity/EO as per the provisions of FTP/HBP and transmit the amendment message electronically to DGFT/ICEGATE server.
B) Extension of Import Validity period and EO period by 6 months for AAs under HBP Para 4.41(e) and
Para 4.42(h) where the revalidation/EO period extension has been granted till date:
- For those AAs where 1st or the 2nd re-validation or EO extension has been granted under the respective paras of HBP, automatic transmission of extended dates is not possible due to system architecture issues.
- In such cases, the exporters shall make an amendment request through email letter to the concerned Regional Authority providing the details of the case.
- RAs upon receiving such requests from the exporters shall expeditiously verify the eligibility of the request, and then carry out the amendments for Revalidation / EOP Extension in the local server.
C) Extension of Validity/ED by 6 months for AAs under HBP Para 4.41(e) and Para 4.42(h) where authorizations are Physical (Non EDI) in nature:
- For such authorizations, the procedure to be adopted would be similar to amendment requests as given in para (B) above.
- The authorizations need to be produced physically at the concerned Regional Authority with a request for an extension in EO/re-validation.
- The concerned RA shall examine the request and endorse the extended validity/E0 based on eligibility as per provisions of FTP/HBP.
D) Same procedure, as given in Para A, B & C shall apply for an extension of validity of the DFIAs for import.
Members may take note of this procedure related to extension of validity/ EO period of AA and do the needful, if applicable. The same procedure will be followed for DFIA also.
Please stay safe and take care!
Thanking You,
Yours faithfully,
S.BALARAJU
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
