Certificates of Origin | 17 Sep 2019

Recently the Ministry of Commerce & Industry launched a common digital platform for the issuance of electronic Certificates of Origin (CoO).

  • A Certificate of Origin is an instrument which establishes evidence o­n the origin of goods imported into any country.
    • These certificates are essential for exporters to prove where their goods come from and therefore stake their claim to whatever benefits goods of Indian origin may be eligible for in the country of exports.
  • The platform has been designed and developed by the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and Regional & Multilateral Trade Relations (RMTR) Division, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
  • This platform will act as a single access point for all exporters, all Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)/Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), and all concerned agencies.
  • The platform also provides administrative access to the Department of Commerce for reporting and monitoring purposes.
  • Authorities of partner countries will now be able to verify the authenticity of certificates from the website.
  • Benefits of this new platform over the existing procedure are:
New Platform Existing Process
The issuance process is electronic, paperless and transparent. The current process requires the exporter to visit the agency thrice for each certificate.
Real-time tracking of FTA utilization at the product level & country-level. Real-time tracking is not possible as data is fragmented across various agencies.
Electronic Certificate of Origin is issued. Physical Certificates of Origin are currently issued by the concerned authorities manually.
It is possible now to electronically exchange CoO with the partner countries. The electronic exchange of CoO is not possible.
Reduces transaction costs and time for the exporters. The current process takes more time and is costly.

Source: PIB