In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 5 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely :-
(1) These rules may be called the Customs Tariff (Determination of Origin of Goods under the Agreement on SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement) Rules, 1995.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
These rules shall apply to products consigned from any Contracting State.
In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires –
No product shall be deemed to be the produce or manufacture of a Contracting State unless the Assistant Commissioner of Customs or Deputy Commissioner of Customs is satisfied that the conditions specified in the Schedule to these rules are complied with in relation to such products.
The importer of the products shall at the time of importation, –
(a) make a claim that the products are the produce or manufacture of the Contracting State from which they are imported and such products are eligible for preferential concession; and
(b) produce the evidence specified in the Schedule to these rules
Products covered by preferential trading arrangements within the framework of the SAPTA imported into the territory of a Contracting State from another Contracting State which are consigned directly within the meaning of paragraph 5, hereof, shall be eligible for preferential concessions if they conform to the origin requirements under any one of the following conditions, namely :-
Within the meaning of paragraph 1(a) the following shall be considered as wholly produced or obtained in the exporting Contracting State, namely :-
Products which comply with origin requirements provided for in paragraph 1 and which are used by a Contracting State as input for a finished product eligible for preferential treatment by another Contracting State shall be considered as a product originating in the territory of the Contracting State where working or processing of the finished product has taken place provided the aggregate content originating in the territory of the Contracting State is not less than 50 per cent of its f.o.b. value.
The following shall be considered as directly consigned from the exporting Contracting State to the importing Contracting State, namely :-
(a) if the products are transported without passing through the territory of any non-Contracting State;
(b) the products whose transport involves transit through one or more intermediate non-Contracting States with or without transhipment or temporary storage in such countries :
Provided that –
When determining the origin of products, packing shall be considered as forming a whole with the product it contains, unless packing has to be treated separately under the national legislation.
Products eligible for preferential concessions shall be supported by a Certificate of Origin, in the form annexed, issued by an authority designated by the government of the exporting Contracting State and notified to the other Contracting States in accordance with the Certification Procedures mentioned below the form annexed.
8.(a) In conformity with Article 15 of the SAPTA and national legislations, any Contracting State may prohibit importation of products containing any inputs originating from States with which it does not have economic and commercial relations.
(b) Contracting States will do their best to cooperate in order to specify origin of inputs in the Certificate of Origin.
These Rules may be reviewed as and when necessary upon request of one-third of the Contracting States and may be open to such modifications as may be agreed upon.
Products originating in Least Developed Contracting States can be allowed a favourable 10 percentage points applied to the percentage established in paragraphs 3 and 4. Thus, for paragraph 3, the percentage would not exceed 70 per cent, and for paragraph 4, the percentage would not be less than 40 per cent.