MOOWR — Manufacturing and Other Operations in Warehouse Regulations, 2019

MOOWR allows any manufacturing entity to declare their existing factory as a Customs Bonded Warehouse — enabling duty-free import of raw materials and capital goods without relocating or rebuilding.

Who is it for: Any manufacturer — Company, LLP, or Partnership — importing raw materials, components, machinery, spare parts, or packaging material.

Sectors covered: Engineering, Automobile, Pharma, Textiles, Foundry, and Greenfield or Brownfield expansions.

What Duties Are Deferred Under MOOWR

Under MOOWR, the following duties are deferred at the time of import:

• Basic Customs Duty (BCD)
• IGST
• Special Welfare Surcharge (SWS)
• Anti-Dumping Duty

If you export the finished product: The deferred duty is completely waived — you pay nothing on the imported inputs.

If you sell in the domestic market: Duty becomes payable only when goods enter the domestic tariff area — not at the time of import.

Key Features at a Glance

What Goods Can You Import Under MOOWR

Included:

• New or used capital goods (machinery)
• Raw materials and components
• Spare parts and packaging material

Excluded:

• Goods for pure trading — value addition or processing is mandatory
• Prohibited items under applicable customs regulation

What Operations Are Permitted Inside the Warehouse

Ongoing Compliance Requirements

Reference Calculation — MOOWR Financial Impact

Based on a ₹40 crore machinery import. For illustrative purposes only.

Cumulative benefit over time:

The longer your import cycle, the more the interest saving on deferred duty compounds — in long-running operations, the accumulated interest saving often exceeds the original duty amount itself.

EPCG — Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme

EPCG allows manufacturer exporters and merchant exporters to import capital goods for pre or post-production use at zero Basic Customs Duty, zero IGST, and zero Compensation Cess — in exchange for a defined export commitment fulfilled over six years.

Who is it for: Businesses with an established or growing export pipeline that need world-class machinery to stay competitive in international markets.

How the Duty Benefit Works

What you get: 0% Basic Customs Duty on machinery import — a full waiver, not a deferment. IGST and Compensation Cess are also fully waived at the time of import.

What it costs you: You must export goods worth 6 times the duty saved within 6 years of licence issuance. You must also maintain the average export level of the preceding 3 years throughout the obligation period.

Actual User Condition: The imported machinery cannot be sold or transferred until the Export Obligation is fully completed.

Bond & Bank Guarantee at Customs

When registering your EPCG licence at the port of import, a bond must be executed with Customs equal to the full duty saved on the machinery. Whether a Bank Guarantee is additionally required depends on your export profile:

• Exports above ₹1 crore annually — Bond required, Bank Guarantee not required
• Exports below ₹1 crore — Both Bond and Bank Guarantee required
• Established manufacturer exporters with ₹5 crore+ turnover and 3 years good track record — can file a Letter of Undertaking (LUT) instead of a Bank Guarantee

The bond stays active for the full 6-year obligation period and is released only after DGFT issues the Export Obligation Discharge Certificate (EODC).

Reference Calculation — EPCG Financial Impact

For illustrative purposes. Actual benefit depends on machinery value and applicable duty rates.

EPCG works best when your export pipeline is already established — the obligation is fulfilled through your regular export activity, not as additional effort on top of your current business.

Ongoing Compliance Requirements

Quick Comparison — MOOWR vs EPCG

Beyond MOOWR & EPCG

MOOWR and EPCG address the two largest duty costs — but three additional mechanisms are frequently missed by businesses already using these schemes:

• Duty Drawback 
• RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products)t.
• Advance Authorisation.

Each works differently and has its own eligibility conditions. Used alongside MOOWR or EPCG, they reduce your effective cost of production further — and the combination is where the real competitive advantage sits.

How We Help

We start by understanding your business — what you import, what you manufacture, what you export, and at what scale. Only then do we identify which schemes apply and whether the compliance commitment is worth the benefit.

MOOWR Registration & Setup Premises assessment, application via Invest India portal, customs inspection, bond execution, and ICEGATE warehouse code activation — handled end to end.

EPCG Licence Application Chartered Engineer certification, Form ANF-5A filing via DGFT, port registration, and Bond or LUT execution based on your export profile.

Compliance Management Monthly ICEGATE returns, digital stock register setup, block-wise EO tracking, DGFT annual reports, and licence redemption on completion.

Duty Drawback & RoDTEP Rate identification, claim filing, and refund tracking — so every eligible rupee is recovered.

Scheme Selection Advisory Not every scheme suits every business. If Advance Authorisation or Drawback alone serves you better than MOOWR or EPCG, we will tell you — with the numbers to back it up.

A Practical Advantage

These incentives do not just reduce import costs — they change the financial structure of your manufacturing operation.

Less duty paid upfront means less capital blocked, lower borrowing, and better working capital from the start. For exporters, zero-duty machinery under EPCG directly lowers your cost of production relative to international competitors — creating room to price sharper or improve margins without cutting corners.

The difference is not visible in month one. But across a 5 to 10 year import cycle, the cumulative impact — duty deferred or waived, interest avoided, refunds recovered — is material, consistent, and entirely government-backed.

The schemes exist. The question is whether your business is structured to use them.

Note: All figures are illustrative estimates based on standard duty rates. Actual benefits vary by product, applicable rates, and scheme conditions. Verify with a qualified advisor before filing.