Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has issued a Trade Notice No. 37/2019-2020 in order to advise the members of trade and industry to be careful while mentioning the HS Codes in the bill of entry in case of imports and shipping bills in case of exports and indicate the specific HS codes of items at 8 digit level where they exist instead of using the “Others” category in a loose and inaccurate manner.
It has been observed that even though HS Codes may be available for the imported items under ITC (HS) 2017 , schedule -1 (Import policy), importers tend to adopt the “Others” category which is essentially a residual category of relevant products and it has created avoidable errors in India Import data. Therefore in order to avoid such errors, importers while filing Bill of Entry with the customs authority are advised to mention the correct HS Codes at 8 digit level. It has also been provided that any wilful mis-declaration of HS codes will be duly dealt with under Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992.
Source: Directorate General of Foreign Trade
