Govt asks traders to suggest tariff codes for goods without classification, warns of licensing regime for ‘others’

Days after commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal warned against imports under the ‘others’ category, the ministry issued a trade notice on Friday asking traders to strictly mention the respective tariff codes (called HS code in trade parlance) in their bills of entry at the time of imports, failing which the government will consider imposing restrictions for inbound shipments of those goods.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) also asked traders to suggest appropriate HS codes for products imported by them which do not have any classification and fall under the ‘others’ category.

Every traded product is categorised under an HSN code (harmonised system of nomenclature)—the global systematic classification of goods.


Of over $500 billion worth of imports in 2018-19, the ‘others’ category accounted for goods worth $130 billion.

Goyal had last week said that high duty will be imposed within a month on products categorised as "others" if they do not carry globally accepted tariff codes.

Asking traders to avoid as far as possible ‘others’ category, DGFT said that the matter will be reviewed shortly and “in the event of non-compliance and continued mis-classification by the importers, government may consider bringing a licensing regime for all items imported under the ‘others’ category by shifting these items from free to restricted category”.

Referring to a notification it issued on October 22 last year asking members of trade and industry to be careful while filing their bill of entry at the time of import, DGFT said they were advised to mention specific HS codes at 8 digit level, where they exist instead of using the “others” category.

The directorate said it was also informed that many importers are not doing due diligence in mentioning correct codes and are casually putting the item under “others” category, which is a residual code category.

“However, despite clear advisory in this notification, it has been noted that import under ‘others’ category continue to be widely used in the bills of entry,” it said.