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Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs
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Circular No. 47/2020-Customs
North Block, New Delhi
Dated 20th October 2020
To,
All Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners of Customs
Principal Directors General/Directors General of Customs
Principal Commissioners/Commissioner of Customs
Subject: Contactless delivery of international courier consignments -reg.
Madam/Sir,
Representations have been received by the Board from the Express Courier Industry for
allowing contactless delivery of international courier consignments in lines with the OTP based
contactless delivery being adopted by the domestic courier companies. The said request is with a
view to maintain the required social distancing considering the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. At present, the authorized courier, upon delivery of the import consignments obtains a
“proof of delivery” from the consignees by taking their physical signature.
3. In light of the need for contactless delivery and also considering that the OTP based
validation gives secure confirmation of delivery to the intended consignee through his registered
mobile number, which also has the necessary KYC, Board, has decided to allow the delivery of
international courier shipments, based on the OTP validation as follows:
(i) Consignee gets OTP on their mobile number which has been registered with the
authorized courier. The authorized courier should exercise due diligence to ensure that
the mobile number belongs to the consignee at the time of registering the phone
number.
(ii) At the time of delivery, the authorised courier electronically validates the OTP from
the consignee.
(iii) Upon successful validation, the shipment is delivered as per the instructions of the
consignee. In case of failure to validate the OTP, the consignment will not be
delivered.
3.1 The OTP based validation will be an alternative means of obtaining proof of delivery to
the existing procedure of taking physical signatures. Thus, the authorized couriers will obtain the
proof of delivery either by taking the physical signatures or through OTP based validation.
4. The Authorised courier shall maintain the data relating to generation and validation of
OTP as a proof of delivery for a period of 5 years. The full audit trail of the process shall be made
available to the officer of customs upon request.
5. Difficulties in implementation of the circular may be brought to the notice of the Board.
6. Hindi version follows.
F. No. 451/13/2020-Cus. V
Sanjeet Singh
(OSD Cus V)
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