Acceptance of E-certificate of Origin issued by the issuing Authority of Korea under India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement after implementation of Indo-Korea EODES

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs issued Instruction No. 10/2024 – Customs regarding Acceptance of E-certificate of Origin issued by the issuing Authority of Korea under India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement after implementation of Indo-Korea Electronic Origin Data Exchange System (EODES).

Representations have been received in the Board with regard to the India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), seeking clarification on, inter-alia, whether Electronic Certificate of Origin (E-COOs) issued by the issuing Authority of the Republic of Korea are acceptable under India-Korea CEPA after implementation of India-Korea Electronic Origin Data Exchange System (EODES).

2. In this regard, it is hereby clarified that in pursuance of the implementation of India-Korea EODES, the electronic certificates of origin shall be considered acceptable for the purpose of claiming preferential benefit under India-Korea CEPA, provided that the E-CoO has been issued in the prescribed format, bears all particulars including QR code, and fulfills all other requirements stated in notification No. 187/2009-Customs (N.t.) dated 31.12.2009 and any further amendments. The e-CoO shall have the same legitimacy as the original copy of its manually issued counterpart.

3. The e-CoO shall continue to be mandatorily uploaded on e-Sanchit by the importer/ Customs Broker for availing preferential benefit, and the e-CoO particulars such as reference number and date, originating criteria etc. shall be carefully entered while filing the bill of entry.

4. In pursuance of the implementation of EODES, a system has been designed in ICES to verify the e-CoO particulars against the data received electronically from the Customs of the exporting country, including wrt multiple use of CoO. The system automatically debits e-CoO quantity from the COO certificate ledger. Therefore, physical defacement of the printed copy of e-CoO shall no longer be required wrt India-Korea CEPA.

5. For further procedural clarity, Advisory No. 31/2023 dated 22.12.2023 issued by DG (Systems), may be referred.

6. It is requested that the above procedure for accepting e-CoO may be suitabley implemented in Customs formations under your jurisdication.