Exporters in south hit by snag in customs website

Exporters using southern ports like Kochi, Tuticorin and Visakhapatnam are facing serious problem in getting the export incentives due to a technical snag in the websites of the Customs department and Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

According to top exporters of Kerala, export benefits of at least Rs 120 crore had been pending to the export houses from  Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh because of this.

The problem originated in August when the software used by the Customs in these ports was upgraded to version 1.5 from version 1. Since DGFT's office uses the old version, the software used by both the offices are not compatible, hence this became the exporters' headache in these states.

All the exporters have to file the shipping bills and the shipping lines have to file the Export General Manifests (EGM) with the Customs and these are automatically uploaded on the website of the DGFT. Export incentives are allotted to the exporters based on the details on the records of DGFT. These include benefits through schemes like Duty Entitlement Pass Book, Vishesh Krishi and Gramin Udyog Yojana (VKGUY) and Export Promotion of Capital Goods (EPCG).

Since this August, the data from the Customs are not uploaded on the website of DGFT, showing only ‘EGM Error.’ Due to this, around 700 shipping bills from Kerala alone are pending with the DGFT office. The pending figure is around 500 from Andhra Pradesh and 300 from Tamil Nadu.

Anwar Hashim, president, Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) told Business Standard that they had taken the issue to the notice of the top brass of the Customs including the Commissioner and DGFT, but failed to get it solved.

Several times the customs department had assured that this was only a technical problem and would be solved very soon. But even after four months the exporters from these states are suffering. He added that the exporters were waiting to raise the issue before the DGFT in a meeting scheduled for December 13.