Govt to soon ease exporters' hassles

Exporters' applications, authorisation by DGFT to be online; all fiscal incentives for exporters to be integrated under one procedure

The government has planned various measures to ease things for exporters on transaction costs and processes.

Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher chaired a meeting on Tuesday in this regard, attended by officials from the departments of industrial policy and promotion, revenue, telecom, roads, railways, shipping and foreign trade, among others.

The aim is an efficient trade facilitation mechanism, in line with global standards for seamless movement of goods within states, commerce department officials told Business Standard.

The government has already undertaken several measures on digitisation of various processes for exporters, said an officer from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.

It is planning a two-pronged strategy for exporters by rolling out procedural simplification and online inter-ministerial consultation. Firstly, exporters can soon file their applications onsite with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

Second, the government plans to make the office of DGFT as ‘paperless’ as possible. Once this takes effect, the office will issue authorisations to exporters in online format.

The plan is also to integrate all fiscal incentives meant for exporters under one procedure.

The second task force on transaction costs in exports, constituted in April 2013, gave its report in July last year. It made recommendations for simplification of procedures and on electronic data interface (EDI).

Minister for commerce and industry Nirmala Sitharaman had recently stated the government was evolving a strategy in terms of specific operational problems for export or import processes.

Last year India also signed an agreement under the World Trade Organization on trade facilitation. As a result, the government has to establish world-class standards in simplifying of customs norms.