India is currently in talks with other countries for mutual recognition of the AEO scheme. India is actively seeking to strike deals with the UAE, Australia, Russia, Japan and the East African Community, under which the highly valued trade privileges given to trusted exporters, importers and logistics players in one country will be honoured by the other country.
Importers who are accredited to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) for following supply chain safety norms accounted for nearly a fourth of India’s merchandise imports in FY23, highlighting the increased adoption of the scheme meant to ensure hassle-free movement of goods at ports, according to Vivek Johri, chairman of CBIC.
In FY23, more than a thousand entities were given the tag of ‘authorised economic operators’ or (AEOs), Johri said in an update on indirect tax administration posted on CBIC’s website. The AEO programme is a key part of a framework meant to ensure supply chain security standards which recognises the significance of a closer partnership between customs and other stakeholders from the trade, Johri said.
The AEO programme offers certain privileges to accredited merchants and businesses, which include quicker clearance of shipments at ports, lower inspection rates, quicker tax refunds, facility for deferred duty payment and acceptance of self-declaration of origin of goods.
The idea is to let businesses carry out cross-border trade with ease by first establishing their credentials by processing documents online and by physical verification. A number of measures have also been taken to enable ease of compliance, such as doing away with the need to furnish physical copies of documents for AEO applications, the update said.
“As a result of these measures, the average processing time of AEO applications has come down from 160 days in November 2022 to 104 days in March 2023. In the last financial year, a total of 1089 entries were added to the AEO base,” Johri said in the update, adding that there are 5370 accredited businesses as of April and represented imports valued in excess of ₹1.72 trillion. “This corresponds to about a quarter of all Bills of Entry filed in 2022-23,” the update said.
