Circular dated 23.10.2015 from Ministry of Finance, now mandates export documents to be digitally signed and submitted through Electronic Data Interchange(EDI). CBEC reinforced its previous circular dated back in march 2015 providing guidelines for signing Bill of Entry, Shipping Bills, IGM and EGM digitally. Initially it was mandated that importers registered under Accredited Client Programme (ACP) are mandatorily required to file Bills of Entry with digital signature with effect from 01.05.2015. Now in order to increase coverage of digitally signed documents and subsequent phasing out of physical /manual submission of documents, Board has decided that:

1. All importers, exporters using services of Customs Brokers for formalities under Customs Act, 1962, shipping lines and air lines shall file customs documents under digital signature certificates mandatorily with effect from 01.01.2016.

2. The importers/ exporters desirous of filing Bill of Entry or Shipping Bill individually may however have the option of filing declarations/ documents without using digital signature.

3. Customs department is also directed to follow the new suit.