FFFAI Chairman Mr. Shankar Shinde felicitated Mr. Surjit Bhujabal, Member (Customs), CBIC, during their recent visit to North Block, New Delhi to make a representation to improve the speed for customs clearance in order to enhance the TRS and EODB performance. The Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) team was headed by Mr. Shankar Shinde along with the Chairman Elect Mr. Dushyant Mulani; Vice Chairmen Mr. Amit Kamat, Mr. Rajesh Verma, Hon. Secretary Mr. Vinod Sharma, Hon. Treasurer Mr. Mr. Sudhir Agarwal and Advisor Mr. S Ramakrishna.
The representation made to the Member (Customs), CBIC was pertaining to issues faced by EXIM Trade in Faceless Assessment, to bring specific timelines of 24 hours for Ocean cargo and 12 hours for Air cargo in Customs Clearance. Time bound Customs clearance will help the country for saving unproductive expenses on demurrage and detention charges being paid by the industry.
Measures to improve the export performance and facilitate the export trade were also discussed. Enhancing the performance of ICEGATE and EDI system were discussed in detail for improving the LPI.
According to Mr. Shinde, with evidence the FFFAI team highlighted the way forward to improve Faceless Assessment with timeline accountability having monitoring dashboard system for trade visibility in achieving high standard of customs clearances. They have also emphasised on training for both trade and Customs officers at ground formation for assessment and seamless cargo operations to reduce dwell time and transaction cost. Implementation of Robust IT system with zero downtime and backup support for 24X7 operations were also highlighted.
The FFFAI representation pointed out that Customs Notifications implementation with immediate effect disturbs the regular flow of trade and requested that any changes in policy with regard to restriction / prohibition or duty structure with advance intimation will help trade to cope up with changes and also mitigate heavy charges incurred on account of Shipping Lines Detention charges and taking cargo back to town with simplification of processes.
Further the FFFAI Chairman informed that the issues on Shipping lines detention and Custodians charges, which are being incurred by exporters resulting in additional cost for no fault of exporters, were also brought to the notice of Mr. Bhujabal for immediate relief to the trade. Such consignments are subject to re-negotiation with buyers due to additional duty levied and require time to realign orders resulting in cancellation of orders due to non-commercial viability.
FFFAI Recommendations
Enhancing Customs Clearance:
- Time bound Customs Clearances to bring in transparency and predictability – 24 hours for ocean and 12 hours for air in Customs Clearance.
- Identify gaps in enhancing of Time release study (TRS) / Ease of doing business (EODB) to address Monitoring Dashboard system with trade visibility.
- Improving Faceless Assessments with Centralized Escalation and Monitoring Mechanism.
- Effective portal based online AEM status with generating history report from filing of document till OOC.
- CAROTAR – Pending provisional assessment needs to be finalized and Bank Guarantee executed, which are pending for last few years, needs to be released.
- Enhancing Digilitization by curbing manual paperwork with Customs and PGA’s.
- Having effective mechanism to prioritise Breakbulk / Charter Vessel / Food /perishable Cargo/ Hazardous Cargo Shipment/ Refrigerated Cargo through system integration to have them into PAG assessment.
- Certificate of Origin (COO)- Online verification system be introduced.
- To reduce dwell time with redundant process.
- Identify area to convert from Manual to system-based process.
- To have robust integration online system for SEZ shipments with ICES / ICEGATE without manual processes prints / signature etc..
Infrastructure:
- Simplification in providing LEO for RMS / Non-RMS facilitated shipping bills.
- System to have zero down time with proper backup system to support for 24x 7 operation.
- Effective and high-tech Scanners at Ports for seamless movement.
- Gate Automation / Universal RFID reader for ease of Export Clearances.
- We request that a Universal RFID Readers be installed in the Parking Plaza that can read the RFID seals of all different manufacturers, which will reduce the dwell time for clearance.
In view of Policy Changes:
- Transitional arrangement where is a restriction levied
- Transitional arrangements should be provided to Trade for Export containers which are already in the Customs / Port premises for Exports.
Initiatives in Skill Development:
- Training and skill developments – for Customs officers at ground formation and Customs Brokers.
- Regular interactive online portal system.
