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The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs held an event titled 'AEO@10: Accelerating Growth, Enhancing Trust, Optimizing Trade' in New Delhi to mark a decade of India's Authorised Economic Operator programme in its present form.
5,967 entities - importers, exporters, manufacturers, customs brokers, logistics operators and warehouse operators - are certified across the AEO T1, T2, T3 and LO categories.
CBIC Chairman Vivek Chaturvedi set out five priorities for the next decade, including radical inclusivity for MSMEs and expanded Mutual Recognition Arrangements with foreign customs administrations.
Documentation under the Eligible Manufacturer Importer Scheme was cut from ten uploads to three by Circular No. 39/2026-Customs, with effect from 15 September 2026.
The programme is India's implementation of Pillar 2 - Customs-to-Business - of the World Customs Organization's SAFE Framework of Standards.
Customs cannot open every consignment. So it audits a firm's records, solvency and supply-chain security once, certifies it, and then clears its cargo on trust - deferred duty payment, direct port delivery, faster refunds and drawback, lower or waived bank guarantees - concentrating physical checks on unknown traders.
India's apex indirect-tax and customs administration; runs the AEO programme and issues the circulars governing it. Created under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963 and renamed from the Central Board of Excise and Customs by the Finance Act, 2018 after GST.
Writes global customs standards, including the SAFE Framework of Standards adopted by its Council in June 2005. SAFE rests on three pillars - Customs-to-Customs network arrangements, Customs-to-Business partnerships, and Customs-to-other-government-agencies cooperation - and AEO is the instrument of Pillar 2, the one CBIC cited on feedback from trade.
Act No. 52 of 1962, in force from 1 February 1963 - the parent law for clearance, assessment, warehousing and duty deferment, under which AEO benefits such as deferred duty payment operate.
Created the present consolidated AEO framework; CBIC dates the shift from transaction-by-transaction checking to risk-based, trust-oriented administration to this circular.
Part of the WTO's Bali Ministerial Package of 2013; ratified by India in April 2016 and in force globally from 22 February 2017, once two-thirds of members had accepted it. India's National Committee on Trade Facilitation and the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan flow from it.
The WCO's blueprint for customs procedures built on IT, risk management and partnership with trade. Adopted June 1999 in revision of the 1973 Kyoto Convention, acceded to by India in November 2005, in force from 3 February 2006 after 40 accessions.
GS Paper 3 > Indian Economy > External Sector and Trade Facilitation
General Awareness > Trade, Customs and Regulatory Institutions
Consider the following statements: 1. India has ratified the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) of WTO. 2. TFA is a part of WTO's Bali Ministerial Package of 2013. 3. TFA came into force in January 2016. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: 1 and 2 only
A business certified by customs as compliant and supply-chain secure, getting deferred duty payment, direct port delivery, faster refunds and lower bank guarantees. India has T1, T2, T3 and LO categories.
A bilateral arrangement in which each customs administration accepts the other's AEO certification.
WCO instrument of June 2005 on secure, facilitated global trade, built on three pillars: Customs-to-Customs, Customs-to-Business, Customs-to-other-agencies.