CBIC Brings Major Relief for Importers with Faster Food Import Clearance and More Inspection Hubs
CBIC Brings Major Relief for Importers with Faster Food Import Clearance and More Inspection Hubs
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has issued an Instruction No. 04/2026-Customs on April 20th, 2026, under Section 25 read with Section 47(5) of the Food Safety Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, and Regulation 13(1) of the FSS (Import) Regulation, 2017, the objective of which is to further improve and simplify the process related to food imports in India.
Authorities that inspect imported food items, such as FSSAI and Customs, have now been allowed to conduct inspections at some new locations, such as additional ports, inland container depots (ICDs) and special economic zones (SEZs). Based on this review, the government has decided to add some new locations so that the process of clearance and inspection of food imports can be done in an easier and better way.
| No. | Location | State | What has changed? |
| 1 | ICD Dhirpur | Haryana | FSSAI officer available |
| 2 | Electronic SEZ Park, Gandhinagar | Gujarat | FSSAI officer available |
| 3 | ICD Naya Raipur | Chhattisgarh | Customs officer authorized |
| 4 | ICD Dahej | Gujarat | Customs officer authorized |
| 5 | ICD Varnama | Gujarat | Customs officer authorized |
| Note: The Port Type for all the above-mentioned locations is ‘ICD and SEZ’. |
Under this update, 5 new points of entry have been notified, where authorised officials (both FSSAI and customs) will now carry out inspections and clearances related to food imports. After the addition of these new locations, the total number of entry points for food import in the country has increased from 166 to 171.
For convenience, the complete list of all 171 entry points and the authorised officers posted there is given in Annexure A. Also, the concerned officers have been instructed to inform the employees working in their area about this update so that it can be followed properly.
This new instruction is in continuation of the earlier issued Instruction No. 31/2025-Customs dated 03 November 2025 and is an important step towards making the food-import process more streamlined.
Click on the download link given below to see the complete instructions in detail.