All Border Trade Transactions Will Be Allowed Only via Banking System Starting From 1st November 2022

To strengthen the compliance with the report from the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), Ministry of Commerce (“MOC”) has issued its bulletin no. 10/2022 on 31^st October 2022 required that all border trade transactions must be settled only through a licensed bank (“Bulletin 10”). Bulletin 10 also mentions that the importers are allowed to acquire foreign currecy from certain sources including (i) export earning, (ii) salary and remittance of oversea Myanmar workers and (iii) other sources. The requirement under the Bulletin 10 will be initially applicable only to the transaction at Myanmar-Thai border and will then expanded to the transactions through other borders.

Bulletin 10 specifically listed down certain requirements regarding the import process at the Myanmar-Thai border as below:

1. The importer will need to get proof of sufficient fund for payment of imports by submitting the credit advice (original) and bank statement issued by the relevant bank to the Department of Trade (authority who is in charge of importation). Only export earnings or incomes earned after 1^st April 2022 can be used for this purpose;
2. The value of the import license granted will not exceed the amount of export earning or other source of income submitted by the importer to the Department of Trade during the application process;
3. In the case that the import license is not required for importing the certain goods, the importer is required to submit the proof of sufficient fund such as credit advice and bank statement while processing for Import Declaration with Customs Department. 

The requirements under Bulletin 10 begin into effect starting from 1^st November 2022. All import licenses obtained before 31^st October 2022 must be used by 30^th November 2022.  Otherwise, those will be canceled.