MOOWR Scheme Consultant — License, Registration & Compliance

If your factory imports raw materials or capital goods, the customs duty you're paying at the port is money sitting idle until your goods actually sell. The MOOWR scheme — Manufacture and Other Operations in Warehouse, under Section 65 of the Customs Act, 1962 — lets you convert that same factory into a private bonded warehouse, so duty on imports is deferred until you clear the finished goods, and waived entirely on whatever you export. No minimum export commitment. No bank guarantee against the deferred duty. No expiry on the license once it's granted.

We handle the part that actually determines whether a MOOWR application moves in six weeks or gets stuck for six months: getting the Annexure A application, the site plan, and the bond documentation right the first time, so your jurisdictional Commissioner has nothing to send back.

Why Businesses Come to Us Mid-Process, Not Just at the Start

Most MOOWR delays we see aren't about eligibility — almost any manufacturer qualifies. They're about paperwork that doesn't match what the jurisdictional Commissionerate expects: a site plan that doesn't clearly separate the bonded area from the rest of the factory, a solvency certificate that doesn't match the insurance policy amount, or a bond drafted before construction is far enough along to actually secure the goods. We've corrected all three, more than once, for businesses who came to us after a first application stalled.

If you're starting fresh, we run the application so these issues don't happen in the first place.

MOOWR License & Registration

What we handle:

• Preparing and filing Form Annexure A with your Commissionerate — the combined application under Section 58 (private warehouse license) and Section 65 (manufacturing permission), filed as one submission rather than two separate ones
• Site plan documentation that clearly demarcates the bonded manufacturing area, matching what the inspecting officer will physically verify
• Bond drafting and execution, sized correctly against your solvency certificate and all-risk insurance policy (typically three times the solvency amount)
• Coordinating the pre-inspection visit — the single most common point where applications get sent back for clarification
• Post-approval warehouse code generation, which is what actually lets you start filing bills of entry for warehousing at the port

Typical timeline: 4–7 weeks from a complete application to warehouse code issuance, assuming your facility construction is far enough along to pass inspection. Most delays beyond this window trace back to construction timing, not paperwork — we flag this upfront so you're not caught importing capital goods before your bonded area is ready to receive them.

Who this is for: Manufacturers converting an existing facility, and businesses setting up a new unit specifically to operate under MOOWR from day one — the application process differs slightly between the two, and we scope it accordingly during the first call.

MOOWR Scheme Compliance

A MOOWR license doesn't expire, but the compliance obligations that come with it are ongoing and specific — and they're where we see established units run into trouble years after their license was granted, usually because the person who managed the original application has since left.

What we manage:

• Monthly returns to the bond officer, due within 10 days of month-end, covering receipt, storage, manufacturing operations, and removal of goods — the format is unforgiving of gaps between what's on record and what's physically in the warehouse
• Warehouse ledger and stock record maintenance, structured to hold up under a customs audit rather than just satisfy the monthly filing
• Bond and insurance renewal tracking, so your solvency cover doesn't lapse behind your actual bonded stock value
• Liaison with the bond officer for routine queries, physical verification visits, and any clarification requests

Where this typically goes wrong without a dedicated process: goods physically moved or consumed in production before the corresponding paperwork catches up — technically a ledger mismatch, and the kind of thing that turns a routine audit into a prolonged one.

MOOWR Export & Domestic Clearance

Where you clear your finished goods determines what you owe, and getting this step wrong is the most expensive mistake we see in MOOWR operations — not because the rule is complicated, but because the clearance decision often gets made on the shop floor by whoever is closest to the loading dock that day.

Export clearance: Goods manufactured from bonded inputs and exported carry zero duty on the imported inputs consumed in making them — filed via shipping bill or bill of export, with the deferred duty on those inputs fully remitted. We handle the shipping bill filing and the corresponding closure of the deferred-duty entry against it, so the exemption is actually recorded correctly, not just assumed.

Domestic clearance (home consumption): When finished goods go to the domestic market, applicable BCD and IGST on the imported inputs used are paid at the point of clearance — filed via a bill of entry for home consumption. There's no cap on how much of your output can go to the domestic market; a MOOWR unit can sell 100% locally if that's the business reality, unlike export-obligation schemes such as EPCG or Advance Authorization.

Capital goods: Machinery and equipment imported under MOOWR stay duty-deferred indefinitely as long as they remain in the bonded unit. Duty only becomes payable if the capital goods themselves are removed for domestic use — which in practice, for most manufacturers, never happens. We handle this distinction specifically because it's the one area where a customs officer's interpretation and a manufacturer's assumption most often part ways.

Why ASC Group

• Combined MOOWR license (Section 58 65) filed as one application, not managed as two disconnected processes
• Direct coordination with the jurisdictional Commissionerate through the entire application-to-warehouse-code cycle
• Ongoing compliance handled by the same team that ran your registration — no handoff gap between setup and operation
• Export and domestic clearance advisory built around your actual sales mix, not a generic template

Talk to a MOOWR Scheme Consultant

Whether you're evaluating MOOWR for a new facility or need compliance and clearance support for a unit already licensed, get a direct assessment of what applies to your operation.