Submission of ‘Bill of Export’ to SEZ units in case of EPCG Authorization relaxed by DGFT

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry recently passed a circular dated July 27, 2022, addressed to all regional authorities of Director General of Foreign Trade (“DGFT”), exporters/members of trade, and custom authorities. Under the circular, the DGFT has provided relaxation to the provision of submitting a "Bill of Export" as an evidence of export obligation discharge for supplies made to the Special Economic Zone (“SEZ”) units in case of Export Promotion Capital Goods (“EPCG”) Authorization.

The obligation of submitting a "Bill of Export" for supplies made to SEZ has been stipulated under the Foreign Trade Policy (“FTP”). However recently, vide policy circular no. 39 (thirty-nine) dated June 7, 2022, the requirement of submitting a "Bill of Export" for supplies made to SEZ under advance authorization has been relaxed. Eventually, the issues at hand were examined and in conformity with para 2.58 of the FTP 2015-2020 (extended till September 30, 2022), it was decided that all the supplies which were made prior to April 1, 2015, wherein the requirement of submitting a "Bill of Export" in case of exports made to SEZ units under EPCG Authorization was a condition precedent has been relaxed subsequently.

Furthermore, to discharge the export obligations under the EPCG Authorizations with respect to the supplies made to SEZ units prior to April 1, 2015, the exporters in lieu of "Bill of Export" are allowed to submit corroborative evidence which includes the following:

• ARE-I form duly attested by jurisdictional Central Excise authorities of the EPCG authorization holder.
• Evidence of the receipt of the supplies by the recipient in the SEZ.
• Evidence of payment made by the SEZ unit to the EPCG authorization holder.