Your UK buyer's 0% duty can be checked years later: the 5-year file Indian exporters must keep

Can HMRC check a CETA origin claim after the goods have cleared?

Yes. Under Article 3.25 of the UK-India Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a verification "may be conducted at any time after the claim for preferential tariff treatment is made". HMRC picks claims by risk assessment, which may include random selection, or on intelligence.

The agreement has applied only since 15 July 2026, and we have found no published CETA verification outcome. A UK tribunal case under another agreement shows how long the tail can be. In Princes Ltd v HMRC, tinned tomatoes imported from Italy between February and June 2021 entered at 0% under the UK-EU trade agreement. HMRC opened a check on 1 July 2022 and in February 2023 proposed £205,160.02 in duty at 14%. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed the importer's appeal on 28 November 2024, because no statement on origin existed when preference was claimed.

The tribunal held the UK importer liable for the duty, as an importer would be under CETA. It decided the case "regardless of whether the Tomatoes are of Italian origin": what was missing was the statement on origin, the document the exporter makes out, when preference was claimed. CETA too expects a proof of origin completed before or at importation, unless the importer makes a late claim (Articles 3.15.6 and 3.15.7). HMRC normally has three years from a customs debt to notify it. For entries made on or after 1 January 2021, its guidance says that period can be extended up to 20 years, without saying when.

Who does HMRC ask first, and when is India involved?

HMRC starts with a written request to the UK importer (Article 3.25.3). If the answers are not enough to decide origin, it must write to India's competent authority no later than two years after the claim (Article 3.25.4).

After two years, HMRC can still ask under the UK-India customs cooperation and mutual assistance agreement signed on 31 May 2021. For suspected fraud, collusion, wilful misstatement or suppression of facts, a request made up to five years after the claim must be answered within 12 months, or 18 in exceptional cases by agreement (Article 3.25.5).

For Indian exports, the competent authority is the Department of Commerce or the agencies notified to issue certificates of origin (Article 3.1). CBIC deals with imports into India, not UK checks on Indian exports.

Under DGFT Trade Notice 11/2026-27, an exporter self-declaring origin on Trade Connect picks a branch address from its IEC. The DGFT Regional Authority or SEZ office mapped to that branch "will undertake verification activity" if the UK raises concerns. Which UK document code a self-declared eCoO takes is not settled in the official sources, so agree it with the UK customs agent.

Indian exporters shipping to the UK do not register with HMRC, email CBIC or obtain a URN. That authentication applies only to UK goods going into India, and it is not origin verification.

What happens when a UK verification request reaches India?

The agreement sets a deadline for most stages:

1. 1

   Write to the importer

   HMRC asks the UK importer in writing. For an importer's knowledge claim, this is the only stage. Goods checked at import can be released against duty or a security.

2. 2

   Escalate to India

   If the answers fall short, HMRC writes to India's competent authority within two years of the claim, listing what it wants checked.

3. 3

   Acknowledge the request

   India confirms receipt in writing within 30 days (Article 3.25.7).

4. 4

   Check the supply side

   India's authority may ask the exporter, producer or supplier for documents, send a questionnaire or visit the premises (Article 3.25.8).

5. 5

   Send the report

   India reports within seven months, or ten if both sides agree in an exceptional case, describing the goods, their code and the production process (Article 3.25.9).

6. 6

   Ask follow-up questions

   If HMRC still cannot decide, it can ask India to verify further information and, in exceptional cases, request a visit.

7. 7

   Decide with reasons

   HMRC decides within one year of having enough information, though it may take longer in exceptional cases or where fraud is suspected, and gives written reasons to the importer and to India (Article 3.25.20).

8. 8

   Charge or release

   If the claim fails, a right-to-be-heard letter allows 30 days to reply, then a final decision and a C18 demand follow. HMRC charges interest on a C18 paid more than 10 days after it is issued, and says it may also charge interest on debts that arise after the goods were released. If the claim stands, duty or security is released.

These are limits for each step, not for the whole check. The treaty sets no deadline for India's answer to a follow-up request, HMRC may extend its one-year limit in exceptional cases, that limit does not apply to suspected fraud, and requests after two years can still go through the 2021 agreement (Articles 3.25.5, 3.25.11 and 3.25.20). Adding up the fixed steps, a request sent near the two-year mark, an extended report, a visit and a full year to decide could keep a claim open for more than four years. That is our own arithmetic from the treaty: we know of no CETA case that has tested it.

Will UK customs officers visit a factory in India?

Not on their own. India's own authority can visit your premises at the first stage of a check, to review records or watch production (Article 3.25.8(c)), and the treaty provides for no UK officials at that stage. A visit that HMRC asks for, and can observe, is available only "in exceptional circumstances", after the report and a follow-up request have failed to settle the question. HMRC must ask within 30 days of India's follow-up reply. India answers within 45 days and, if it agrees, gives HMRC at least 21 days' notice to arrange it (Articles 3.25.12 and 3.25.13). The treaty sets no notice period for the exporter.

The Indian authority conducts that visit too. HMRC may send up to two observers, who must be government officials, act through India's authority and may not, on their own initiative, look for documents, search or question the exporter, producer or supplier directly (Article 3.25.14).

Cost data is protected too. The UK cannot require an importer to ask the exporter or producer for confidential information (Article 3.16.5). Information the exporter, producer or supplier deems confidential stays with India's authority, which lists the sources it reviewed and tells HMRC whether they support the claim (Article 3.25.10).

What should an exporter do when a verification request arrives?

HMRC writes to the UK importer and to India's authority, not to you. Any letter to you should come from India's side: the Department of Commerce or the agency that issued your certificate or, for a Trade Connect self-declaration, the DGFT office mapped to your IEC branch. The steps below are practical suggestions, not a treaty procedure.

1. 1

   Note the deadline

   Reply by the date the authority sets. The treaty gives no fixed period for your answer, but failing to respond is itself a ground for denial (Article 3.19.2(c)), and India has seven months to report to HMRC.

2. 2

   Pull the file for that declaration

   Match the declaration, invoice and shipping papers to the bill of materials, supplier statements and costings that support the origin criterion claimed.

3. 3

   Mark what is confidential

   Say which cost sheets and supplier prices are confidential. India's authority then keeps them, lists the sources it reviewed and tells HMRC whether they support the claim (Article 3.25.10).

4. 4

   Bring in the producer

   A merchant exporter should alert the maker at once, because the authority can write to or visit the producer or supplier directly (Article 3.25.8).

5. 5

   Tell the UK buyer

   Let the importer know, in writing, so that its answers to HMRC and yours do not conflict.

What records must Indian exporters keep, and for how long?

Article 3.24.2 requires a producer or exporter to keep records for five years from the issue of the certificate of origin or completion of the origin declaration. That covers the proof, supplier information and all records proving origin. For India, the issuing authority has the same duty. Any medium that allows prompt retrieval will do.

The clock is the catch. One declaration can cover identical shipments for up to 12 months, but the five years run from its completion, not the last shipment. A declaration completed on 1 August 2026 covering goods until 31 July 2027 must be kept until 1 August 2031. Keeping files five years from the last shipment covered is the safer practice: a suspected-fraud request on a claim made in July 2027 could still arrive in July 2032.

The declaration is also a promise. In the Annex 3B wording, the signatory agrees to "maintain and present upon request" origin information, and Indian signatories quote their IEC. Missing paper is treated harshly: materials "of unprovable origin" count as non-originating (Article 3.1), and undocumented cost adjustments are not allowed (Article 3.5.5).

• The declaration or certificate as issued, with the IEC, six-digit HS code and origin criterion
• Commercial invoice and packing list that match it
• Shipping bill and bill of lading or air waybill, plus customs-control papers for any transit hub
• Bill of materials listing every input with its HS code and origin
• Supplier invoices and written supplier statements, and bills of entry for imported inputs
• Cost sheet and QVC working, with evidence for every adjustment
• Production records and place of production; for honey or spices, apiary, farm or harvest records
• A named person who answers verification letters, and an IEC branch address kept current on DGFT

Which records does each origin rule put to the test?

Article 3.25.6 lists what HMRC can ask India to verify, and it follows the origin criterion on the proof. The rule for your goods, set out in the CETA product-specific rules guide, decides which papers matter most.

Minimal work never confers origin. Repacking, labelling, sorting, simple mixing and simple assembly do not count (Article 3.7). Only UK and Indian materials can be cumulated as originating (Article 3.8), and third-country inputs are allowed only as far as the product rule permits. Goods bought in China and repacked in India will not pass a verification, however tidy the paperwork. The UK-India rules of origin guide explains how goods qualify.

What does a merchant exporter need from the manufacturer?

A merchant exporter may complete the origin declaration relying on the producer's information (Article 3.16.3). But India's authority can write to, question or visit the exporter, the producer or a supplier (Article 3.25.8), so the maker can be contacted directly even when it did not sign. Before the first CETA shipment, the merchant exporter should hold:

• the producer's written origin information: criterion used, bill of materials and, for value rules, the QVC result
• a written undertaking that the producer will keep its records for five years and cooperate with any check (a practical safeguard, not a legal form)
• a named contact at the producer, and agreement on whether cost data is shown only to India's authority as confidential

The route to the proof also decides who verifies: the CETA certificate of origin guide compares the self-declared and agency-issued routes. For a self-declared eCoO, the DGFT office mapped to your IEC branch handles a UK query (Trade Notice 11/2026-27). For an agency-issued certificate, the issuing agency is itself part of India's competent authority (Article 3.1) and must keep its own records for five years (Article 3.24, footnote 7). Authorised agencies also check eligibility before they issue a certificate (DGFT Handbook of Procedures, para 2.91(c)).

Why can a claim be denied, and who pays if it is?

Article 3.19.2 gives HMRC four grounds, and a denial comes as a written determination with reasons to the importer.

The debt falls on the UK declarant: the importer when an agent acts in its name (direct representation), or the importer and agent jointly and severally under indirect representation. An Indian exporter is liable directly only when it is the importer or declarant, as can happen under some DDP arrangements. If a claim fails, the standard UK rate is due. These rates were read on HMRC's Trade Tariff on 30 October 2026:

On £10,000 customs value of cotton bed linen, a denied claim means £1,200 in duty plus interest, and import VAT is charged on a base that includes the duty. Whether an importer could fall back on DCTS after a CETA denial is not settled: it would at least need a separate, valid DCTS proof, and India leaves DCTS on 15 July 2028. For bed linen there is nothing to fall back on: India is excluded from the DCTS rate on that line.

Repeat failures go further. If goods from the same exporter or producer fail verification on two separate occasions, the second on a proof dated at least a month after HMRC sent India its first determination, the UK may temporarily suspend preference for its later imports under the same commodity code. It must give India at least 15 days' notice first (Article 3.26).

Can a mistake be fixed before it becomes a denial?

Often, yes. Minor errors and typing or formatting mistakes that create no doubt about origin are not grounds to reject a proof. An importer gets 30 days to replace a proof that is defective on its face (Article 3.22).

A real error is different. An importer with reason to believe a claim is wrong must immediately correct it, tell HMRC and pay the duty (Article 3.21; SI 2020/1457, regulation 14(4)). For CDS entries that means a C2001 voluntary clearance amendment, followed by a C18 for the extra duty.

Timing changes the penalty. Customs Notice 301 says there is no civil penalty for a contravention disclosed voluntarily, in writing, before you had reason to believe HMRC was making enquiries. Otherwise, for most contraventions HMRC charges a penalty only if it has sent a warning letter for the same or a similar error within the last two years. The first penalty is usually £250, and the maximum is £1,000 or £2,500 per contravention. Relying on another person whose conduct caused the error is not a reasonable excuse. These penalties fall on the UK declarant.

CETA puts no express duty on the exporter to report an error it finds. It only encourages customs to treat the importer's notification, made before the error is discovered, as a significant mitigating factor (Article 3.21.2). So an exporter who finds a problem should tell the buyer at once, in writing.

This guide explains the rules, not your case: for a live query, work with the UK customs agent and the DGFT office or agency involved. Makers supplying a merchant exporter such as Britbasket should agree in writing who keeps which part of the file, because India's authority can come to them directly.

Questions exporters ask

Sources

1. DBT: UK-India CETA Chapter 3, Rules of origin (agreement signed 24 July 2025)
2. DBT: UK-India CETA Annex 3B, Origin declaration (agreement signed 24 July 2025)
3. DBT: UK-India CETA Chapter 5, Customs and trade facilitation (updated 15 July 2026)
4. HMRC: India Origin Reference Document v1.0 (13 January 2026)
5. HMRC Tariff Stop Press: India Free Trade Agreement enters into force on 15 July 2026 (13 July 2026)
6. FCDO and DBT: DCTS country graduation, India (4 September 2026)
7. legislation.gov.uk: The Customs Tariff (Preferential Trade Arrangements) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1457)
8. DGFT: Trade Notice 11/2026-27 (13 July 2026)
9. DGFT: Handbook of Procedures, Chapter 2 (July 2026)
10. HMRC: Pay less Customs Duty on goods from a country with a UK trade agreement (3 February 2025)
11. HMRC: Get proof of origin for your goods (6 November 2024)
12. HMRC: Customs debt liability (13 August 2026)
13. HMRC: Customs Notice 301, civil penalties (31 July 2026)
14. HMRC: Voluntary clearance amendment, C2001 (13 August 2026)
15. HMRC: Apply for an Advance Origin Ruling (4 July 2023)
16. HMRC Trade Tariff: natural honey 0409000090, India (30 October 2026)
17. HMRC Trade Tariff: cotton bed linen 6302310000, India (30 October 2026)
18. HMRC Trade Tariff: hand-made wool shawls 6214200010, India (30 October 2026)
19. HMRC Trade Tariff: cotton T-shirts 6109100010, India (30 October 2026)
20. HMRC Trade Tariff: earthenware tableware and kitchenware 6912002510, India (30 October 2026)
21. HMRC Trade Tariff: hand-made earthenware ornaments 6913909310, India (30 October 2026)
22. First-tier Tribunal: Princes Ltd v HMRC [2024] UKFTT 1074 (TC) (28 November 2024)

Last reviewed 30 October 2026. Border, tariff and plant-health rules change. Check the sources above before relying on this guide for a specific consignment.