On March 4, 2025, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) issued Circular No. 06/2025-Customs, modifying its existing guidelines on the disposal of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), including drones. This update revises CBIC’s previous Circular No. 32/2019, as amended by Circular No. 05/2024. The changes designate five focal Customs Commissionerates—Chennai, Delhi (IGIA), Kolkata, Mumbai, and Bengaluru—for storing, inspecting, and distributing confiscated drones. All Customs Zones across India have been mapped to these locations for streamlined processing. Additionally, Annexure-A and Annexure-C of the previous circulars have been replaced, updating storage assignments and listing nodal officers responsible for overseeing the process. The revised policy aims to centralize drone disposal procedures while ensuring efficient coordination among agencies.
394/08/2017-Commr.(Inv-Cus.)
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs
(Investigation-Customs)
New Delhi
*****
Circular No. 06/2025-Customs Dated 04th March, 2025
To,
All Pr. Chief Commissioner/ Chief Commissioner, Customs/ Customs
(Preventive)/ CGST and Customs Zones,
Pr. Commissioner, Directorate of Logistics,
Pr. Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence/ Directorate of
Goods and Service Tax Intelligence,
Webmaster, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.
Madam/Sir,
Subject:- Disposal of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)/Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)/Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS)/Drones-reg.
Kind attention is invited towards CBIC’s Circular No. 32/2019 dated 20.09.2019 amended by Circular No. 05/2024-Customs dated 22.05.2024 on the above-mentioned subject.
2. In partial modification to the said Circular, the following amendments are being made:-
(i) Para 4.b. of the said Circular shall be substituted as follows:
“All the Drones of all the categories shall be transferred to the warehouses of the following Customs formations, namely, Chennai (Airport), Delhi (IGIA), Kolkata (Airport), Mumbai (Airport) and Bengaluru (Airport & Air Cargo), which shall be the focal Commissionerates for stocking, segregation, joint inspection by all agencies and distribution. For this purpose, all the Customs Zones have been mapped to these focal Commissionerates as indicated at Annexure-A.”
(ii) Annexure-A of the said Circular shall be substituted by the Annexure appended to this circular as Appendix-I.
(iii) Annexure-C of the said Circular shall be substituted by the Annexure appended to this circular as Appendix-II.
Yours faithfully
Digitally Signed by
Poonam Bhatt
Dated: 04/03/2025
Deputy Secretary
Appendix-I
Annexure-A
[CBIC Circular No. 32/2019 dated 20.09.2019 as amended by Circular No. 05/2024-Customs dated 22.05.2024 and Circular No. 06/2025-Customs dated 04.03.2025]
Mapping of Customs Zones to the Focal Customs Commissionerates for transfer of confiscated Drones
| S.No. | Customs / Customs & CGST / Customs Preventive Zone |
Focal Customs Commissionerates |
| 1. | Chennai, Tiruchirappalli (P), Thiruvananthapuram (Kochi), Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad | Chennai (Airport) |
| 2. | Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Patna (P) | Kolkata (Airport) |
| 3. | Mumbai-I, Mumbai-II, Mumbai-III, Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur | Mumbai (Airport) |
| 4. | Delhi, Delhi (P), Bhopal | Delhi (IGIA) |
| 5. | Bengaluru | Bengaluru (Airport & Air Cargo) |
Appendix-II
Annexure-C
[CBIC Circular No. 32/2019 dated 20.09.2019 as amended by Circular No. 05/2024-Customs dated 22.05.2024 and Circular No. 06/2025-Customs dated 04.03.2025]
List of Nodal Officers
| S. No. | Organization | Name of Nodal Officer | Designation | Contact Details |
| 1 | SPG | Shri Parveen Kumar | SSO/Tech | 9582304489 spgtech@nic.in |
| 2 | CRPF | 1. Sh. Dinesh S.A.,
2. Sh. Chandra Shekhar Sharma |
1. Assistant Commandant
2. Deputy Commandant |
011-26108330 |
| 3 | NSG | Maj Nitin Kumar, IC81972L |
Major | 9337254660 |
| 4 | NTRO | Maj DS Sidhu (Retd.) | Dy Chief Aviator | 8019500111 |
| 5 | CISF | 1. Sh.Jitender Rana, IPS (Delhi Airport)
2. Shri Deepak Agarwal (Mumbai Airport) 3. Shri Arun Singh (Chennai Airport) 4. Shri Shiv 5. Shri Manju Nath, IPS (Bengaluru Airport) 6. Smt. Jayati |
1. Dy. Inspector General
2. Dy. Inspector General 3. Dy. Inspector General 4. Dy. Inspector General 5. Dy. Inspector General 6. Dy. Inspector General 7. Commandant 8. Commandant |
1. 011-49652036
2. 022-26264729 3. 044-22563702 4. 040-66601424 5. 080-22001521 6. 033-39874560/61 7. 079-22853161 8. 020-26683234 |
| Ghosh (Kolkata Airport)
7. Shri Rakesh Choudhary (Ahmedabad Airport) 8. Shri Santosh Kumar Suman (Pune Airport) |
||||
| 6 | BSF | Commandant (NIIE) | Commandant | Room No. 405,4th Floor, Block-10, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi- 03 email: niie.bsf@bsf.nic.in 011-24352361, 24360922 Fax: 011-24361794 |
| 7 | ITBP | Sh. Gautam Kumar (Main) | Deputy
Commandant |
9891165180 |
| Sh. P. K. Tiwari (Reserve) | Deputy
Commandant |
8527399681 | ||
| 8 | Army, Inf Dte /Col. Inf-5 | NR
Choudhury |
Colonel | 33821/9671342555 |
| 9 | O/o JS (Navy and Def Staff), Department of Military Affairs | Cdr V Bharat | Commander | 011- 26771392/1311 Fax: 011- 26771367 |
| 10 | Assam Rifles | Lieutenant Colonel Sumit Vashistha, |
General Staff Officer-1 (Equipment Management/ Peace Establishment) | 9617626912 |
| 11 | Indian Air Force | Gr. Captain Muneesh Sharma (23934- G) Adm | Group Captain | Tele: 011-23010231, IP-21115946 Mob-9810366020 rakshak.vayuyodha@gov.in |
| 12 | Delhi Police | Sh. Sukhraj Katewa | DCP/Security(PM) | 8130099021 |
| 13 | Intelligence Bureau | Sh. Mahakaleshwar Nath | Joint Deputy Director | 8920172776 Geospatial.mha@gov.in |
| 14 | Centre for Futuristic Defence Studies (CFDS), National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) | Group Captain Ajay Purandare (Retd.) | Head, CFDS | groupcaptain.ajaypurandare @nfsu.ac.in |
| Dr. Nilay Mistry | Branch Head, CFDS | nilay.mistry@nfsu.ac.in |
