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In view of the ongoing initiatives from the Government of India showing keenness to reduce free import air cargo dwell time further, from present 72 hours to 48 hours, the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) has observed that an ad-hoc reduction of free time (as mentioned above) would be incorrect unless the other areas pertaining to Import Cargo clearance are rationalized. In this regard FFFAI has been representing to Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA), Government of India in regular basis.
“At present, it has been noticed that the time taken by the Airlines, Custodians and Consolidators to make Import Air Cargo available for clearance takes very long time and eats away free time available at Air Cargo Complex. The erratic working of ICEGATE also adds to the problem,” said Mr Samir Shah, Chairman, FFFAI. He also made it clear that always FFFAI’s endeavor would be to improve the efficacy once the entire process is streamlined and our global ranking improves automatically.
Meanwhile, FFFAI Vice Chairman Mr. S Ramakrishnan and EC Member, Mr. Vipin Vohra had a series of meetings with Dr. Renu Singh Parmar, Sr. Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation on the above matter and presented FFFAI’s recommendations to the concerned Ministry.
In a representation made to MOCA, FFFAI urged that the following points are required to be considered and all stakeholders need to be sensitized to ensure that the process are completed in time so that Importer /Custom Brokers get full benefit of the free period.
Major Recommendations from FFFAI:
– It was observed instead of putting normal stickers or bar code, if the QR codes are put on the import packages, it would really expedite the segregation, decimation of information to Customs, Custodian, Airlines, etc.
– This would also be linked to Custodian storage area with location and the same should be visible to Custom Brokers through the Custodian website.
– Reduction of free period should also be linked to upgradation of system by Customs, Single Window, PGAs etc without which the reduction of time would not actually fructify the ease of doing business and transaction cost would only go up instead of reducing.
– FFFAI also requested sufficient time required to be given to the authorities before the implementation of reduction of free period.
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