The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) of India recently issued a new customs notice (Circular No. 15/2023-Customs), which mandates that all imported chemicals must provide 100% of the product components IUPAC names and CAS numbers during customs declaration. This new regulation applies to a wide range of products, including organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals, precious metals, rare earth metals, radioactive elements or isotopes, tanning or dyeing extracts, dyes, pigments, paints, putties, adhesives, inks, miscellaneous chemical products, plastics and their products, etc.

The new regulation aims to optimize the declaration process for imported and exported chemicals, reduce queries and speed up customs time to improve the efficiency and benefits of imported and exported trade. However, as the information required by this mandatory regulation may involve business secrets, it has sparked strong controversy within the industry.

In response to industry concerns, CBIC issued an amendment notice (Circular No. 18/2023-Customs) on June 30, 2023, postponing the enforcement date of this mandatory regulation to October 1, 2023. Additionally, the latest customs notice mentioned that they may issue subsequent guidelines to guide enterprises on how to declare information. These guidelines are expected to further clarify issues related to the protection of commercial information, helping enterprises better understand and comply with relevant regulations, and safeguarding their trade secrets and intellectual property rights.

In order to avoid delayed clearance, we remind relevant companies that trade with India to screen their export products in a timely manner to determine whether a component declaration is required.At the same time, companies should also closely follow the follow-up guidelines that CBIC may issue to ensure that their business secrets and intellectual property rights are protected while complying with the new regulations.