¹[15. Certificate of Origin and Certification Procedures.- (1) The Certificate of Origin shall be in the format as specified in Annexure-E and shall include the HS Code, description and quantity of the products, name of consignee, name of exporter or producer or manufacturer, country of origin, and origin criteria such as value content or change in tariff classification.

(2) The Certificate of Origin shall be in the English language.

(3) The Certificate of Origin shall bear a unique, sequential serial number separate for each office of issuance and affixed by the issuing authority in the exporting Party.

(4) The Certificate of Origin shall be issued by the competent authority of each Party and it shall bear the authorised signature and official seal of the competent authority

(5) The Certificate of Origin shall be valid for the purpose of only one import and shall include one or more products.

(6) The number and date of the commercial invoice or any other relevant documents shall be indicated in the box reserved for this purpose in the Certificate of Origin.

(7) The Certificate of Origin shall be submitted within its validity period.

(8) In exceptional circumstances, the Certificate of Origin may be accepted by the Customs Administration in importing Party for the purpose of granting preferential tariff treatment even after the expiry of its validity, provided that the failure to observe the time limit results from force majeure or other valid reasons beyond the control of the exporter and the products have been imported before the expiry of the validity period of the said Certificate of Origin.

(9) The Certificate of Origin shall be forwarded by the exporter to the importer and importer shall produce original copy of the Certificate of Origin to the customs authorities.

(10) Neither erasures nor superimposition shall be allowed on the Certificate of Origin. Any alterations shall be made by striking out the erroneous material and by making any addition required. Such alteration shall be approved by a person authorised to sign the Certificate of Origin and certified by the appropriate competent authority or by issuing a new Certificate of Origin to replace the erroneous one. Unused spaces shall be crossed out to prevent any subsequent addition.

(11) The Certificate of Origin shall be issued prior to, at or within a period of five working days of the date of exportation. However, under exceptional cases, where a Certificate of Origin has not been issued at the time of exportation or within five working days from the date of shipment due to involuntary errors or omissions, or any other valid reasons, the Certificate of Origin may be issued retrospectively, bearing the words “ISSUED RETROSPECTIVELY” in box 9 of the Certificate of Origin, with the issuing authority also recording the reasons in writing on the exceptional circumstances due to which the certificate was issued retrospectively. The Certificate of Origin can be issued retrospectively but no longer than twelve months from the date of shipment.

(12) In the event of theft, loss or destruction of a Certificate of Origin, the manufacturer, producer, exporter or their authorised representative may apply in writing to the issuing authority for a certified true copy of the original made on the basis of the export documents in their possession bearing the endorsement of the words “CERTIFIED TRUE COPY” (in lieu of the original certificate) and the date of issuance of the original Certificate of Origin. The certified true copy of a Certificate of Origin shall be issued within the validity period of the original Certificate of Origin. The exporter shall immediately notify the loss and undertake not to use the original Certificate of Origin for exports under these rules to the competent authority.

(13) Minor discrepancies between the Certificate of Origin and the documents submitted to the Customs Administration at the port of importation for the purpose of carrying out the formalities for importing the products shall not ipso facto  invalidate the Certificate of Origin, if such Certificate of Origin corresponds to the products under importation. Minor discrepancies include typing errors or formatting errors, subject to the condition that these minor errors do not affect the authenticity of the Certificate of Origin or the accuracy of the information included in the Certificate of Origin. Discrepancies in the specimen signatures or seals of the issuing authority shall not be regarded as minor discrepancies.]

Notes:

1. Inserted by the Notification No. 39/2022-Customs (N.T.) dated 30.04.2022.