India Drops SCOMET Reporting Requirement for Certain UAVs and Drones
India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade in an Aug. 30 notice changed its export policy for certain types of drones/UAVs, dropping the requirement that these exports receive authorization under the Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies (SCOMET) scheme. The move applies to "Unmanned aerial vehicle systems including drones, remotely piloted air vehicles and autonomous programmable vehicles, not specified under SCOMET Categories/sub-categories 3D013, 5B(a) & (b), 6A010, 8A912, and capable of range equal to or less than 5 km and delivering a payload of not more than 5 kgs (excluding the software and technology of these items)."
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To export these items, the applicant exporter needs to submit an application for getting a one-time authorization under the General Authorization for Export of Drones/UAVs (GAED) through the online SCOMET portal. Applications are then reviewed by the Inter-Ministerial Working Group. The exporter must then ensure that they notify the relevant government authorities in the DGFT portal on a quarterly basis of such export; they have an agreement or purchase order; and they have documents with the name, contact number and email address of the authority signing the end-user certificate before export.