News
India Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) of the Department of Revenue Central Board of Excise & Customs, Ministry of Finance, has decided to merge the two facilitation schemes namely Accredited Client Program (ACP) and Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) program.
The prominent features of the new program are:
1. Inclusion of direct port delivery of imports to ensure just-in-time inventory management by manufacturers - clearance from wharf to warehouse
2. Inclusion of direct port entry for factory stuffed containers meant for export by AEOs
3. Special focus on small and medium scale entities - any entity handling 25 import or export
documents annually can become part of this program
4. Provision of deferred payment of duties - delinking duty payment and customs clearance
5. Mutual recognition agreements with other customs administrations
6. Faster disbursal of drawback amount
7. Fast tracking of refunds and adjudications
8. Extension of facilitation to exports in addition to imports
9. Self-certified copies of FTA / PTA origin related or any other certificates required for clearance would be accepted
10. Request based on-site inspection /examination
11. Paperless declarations with no supporting documents
The new program offers only one tier of certification (i.e. AEO-LO) whereas for the importers and the exporters, there will be three tiers of certification (i.e. AEO-T1, AEO-T2 and AEO-T3).
AEO-T1 Certificate may be granted only to an importer or to an exporter who should fulfill the criteria manipulated by CBEC.
AEO-T2 Certificate may be granted only to an importer or to an exporter who should fulfill the criteria mentioned by CBEC and an applicant must be established in India.
AEO-T3 Certificate must have continuously enjoyed the status of AEO-T2 for at least a period of two years preceding the date of application for grant of AEO-T3 status.
AEO-LO CERTIFICATE may be granted to categories of economic operators other than importers and exporters, namely logistics providers, custodians or terminal operators, customs brokers and warehouse operators.
