Government working on single-window clearance for seamless trade: Anup Wadhawan, DGFT

LUDHIANA: To achieve seamless flow of trade, the government is working on a single-window clearance mechanism, which will also help improve the ease of doing business, a top official said today.

Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Anup Wadhawan, who was addressing exporters at an interaction here, said the government is committed to help trade and industry in the best possible way and considers them as a stakeholders and partners in the economic revival process of the country.

Regarding Merchandise Exports of India Scheme (MEIS), Wadhawan informed that after announcement of the Scheme on April 1, 2015, Rs 4,000 crore has further been put in the Scheme for covering more tariff lines and markets.

As and when government releases more funds for the Scheme, more tariff lines will be considered by the Committee headed by the Commerce Secretary taking into all aspects of the Scheme, he said.

Besides, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President S C Ralhan hoped that outward shipments will move into positive territory from June onwards and the continuous downfall since December, 2014 will come to an end as exports data released for April, 2016, have shown promising results.

Declining for 17th straight month in April, exports dipped by 6.74 per cent to USD 20.5 billion due to sharp fall in shipments of petroleum and engineering products amid tepid global demand.

Ralhan said the recent measures announced by DGFT like resolving landing certificate issue, etc will improve exports' competitiveness and also reduce transaction cost.

He urged DGFT to consider release of the Target Plus benefits and Incremental Exports Incentivization benefit for 2013-14 at the earliest.

Resolving the issue of separate MEIS application for exports made from each EDI Port is also equally important, Ralhan said.