Compliance systems to be eased for importers

Currently an importer has to go and present physical copies of documents for approval from the authorities

The government is looking to expand the scope of the single-window clearance mechanism for importers launched on April 1, which could significantly cut the cost and time for importers and, in turn, help improve ease of doing business.

To further simplify inbound shipments, the government is working towards allowing all physical import licences to be uploaded online with a digital signature. This will do away with the cumbersome compliance measures requiring importers to show physical copies of import licences or rules of origin certificates to the authorities each time.

"The next step is to do away with the need to present physical copies of licences each time one imports. It will all be made online within the next two months," said a government official.

The import facilitation move is expected to benefit a large volume of imports and, in turn, the economic growth and manufacturing, which is largely import-dependent.

Currently, a bill of entry requires an average of three documents. An importer has to go and present physical copies of documents for approval from the authorities. The government's proposed initiative will allow importers to upload scanned documents with digital signatures.

"With this, an importer will not have to do anything. After uploading the scanned copy with digital signature once, you don't need to redo it. This will minimise interference," said the official.

The documentation requirement also pertains to catalogues with description of goods, scientific background etc.

The government is upgrading capacity of its processes and servers to allow the huge volume of documents that would be uploaded.

India is ranked 133 in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking on the "trading across borders" parameter on account of cumbersome paper work and high costs.

Documentary compliance takes 67 hours and four hours, respectively.

Border and documentary compliance for imports together cost an average $695 in India compared with $148 in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, according to the rankings.

Officials, however, countered this saying the facilitation level for trade in India was 70 per cent.

The government on April 1 launched a single-window mechanism framework, which is seeing 17,000 bills of entries every day.

"Now an importer is not required to go through various other agencies while making consignment declaration. They are automatically routed through. There have been well over 300,000 bills of entries through the facility since the launch," said the official.

The Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade provides a single-point interface for clearance and has benefited 97 per cent of India's imports. It has connected 50 offices of six government agencies with the Indian customs department. These are the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India; Department of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage; Drug Controller; Animal Quarantine; Wild Life Crime Control Bureau and Textile Committee.

Imports are now subjected only to risk-based checks by all these agencies instead of compulsory testing.