Pradhan urges Goyal not to shift DGFT office from Odisha

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday urged the commerce ministry to not shift the regional office of the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) from Odisha's Cuttack in view of the developmental needs of the state.

Pradhan said he came to know that the DGFT has decided to close the regional office at Cuttack and merge it with the East Zone unit at Kolkata.

This "undesirable" move will have a drastic impact on the producers as well as exporters of Odisha, who will not be able to absorb the increase in logistic costs, he said.

"Keeping in view the developmental needs of Odisha as an export hub and the benefit of exporters and producers of Odisha, I seek your personal intervention in continuance of the DGFT regional office at Cuttack, Odisha," Pradhan wrote to Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal.

The closure of the DGFT office will "jeopardise" ease of doing business for exporters of Odisha, who will now have to travel to Kolkata for availing the facilities like clearance and processing, he added.