Government of India
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Department of Commerce
Directorate General of Foreign Trade
Udyog Bhawan, Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi-110011
Policy - 4 Division

Trade Notice No. 27 / 2020-21

Date 14th September 2020
 

To,
Members of Trade, Export Promotion Councils and all RAs

Subject : Streamlining of Unit Quantity Codes (UQCs) in DGFT's EDI system and Customs' ICEGATE.

It has been observed that the usage of harmonized standard UQC (Unit Quantity Codes) at the time of filing of Shipping Bills and Bills of Entry in ICEGATE is being mandated through various public notices issued by customs formations during the month of August 2020. This is in continuation to the efforts being made by both DGFT as well as Customs Department over last few years to ensure standardization in the data collection for the purpose of clean data reporting and analysis. It also has been noted that use of Non- standard and Non-convertible UQCs lead to poor quality of data capture and related consequences.

2. However, the Pubic Notice No. 101 sated 18.8.2020 issued by JNCH Mumbai customs has resulted in difficulties for some members of the trade and Industry in complying with the standard UQCs in their old Advance and EPCG authorizations which have been issued with quantity units that do not match with the standard UQCs being adopted/available now.

3. In order to address this issue, following has been decided:

i) No new authorizations mentioning Non-standard units such as BoU, packs, Boxes cartons and bottles etc would be issued by RAs. For this necessary changes are being carried out in the DGFT EDI system also.

ii) In order to ensure that exports do not suffer in the meanwhile, for the authorizations already issued and carrying any Non —standard units such as BoU, packs, Boxes cartons and bottles etc, Customs have been requested to allow exports against such authorizations till 30.10.2020 by accepting exporter's shipping bills in the UQCs provided in ICEGATE. After 1.11.2020, exports/imports without standard UQCs will not be permitted.

iii) In the meanwhile, such authorization holders are requested to approach concerned RA and get the non — standard units indicated in their authorizations in the import and export quantities, converted to standard quantity units. In case RAs face any difficulty in carrying out these amendments, they will get in touch with the concerned Norms Committee (NC) in Hqrs.

4. Difficulty in implementation of these instructions, if any, may be brought to the notice of this directorate at policy4-dgft@gov.in immediately.

5. This issues with the approval of the Competent Authority.

(Vijay Kumar)
Additional Director General of Foreign Trade

Issued from File No. 01/94/180/438/AM20/PC-4