The Office Bearers (OBs) of the Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in India (FFFAI) met with the Revenue Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of India Mr. Sanjay Malhotra and discussed trade facilitation measures. The FFFAI delegation was led by its Chairman Mr. Shankar Shinde, which included Chairman Elect Mr. Dushyant Mulani, Vice Chairmen Mr. Rajesh Verma and Mr. Amit Kamat, Hony. Secretary Mr. Vinod Sharma, Hony. Treasurer Mr. Sudhir Aggarwal and Advisor Mr. S. Ramakrishna. According to Mr. Shinde, the discussions were very progressive which was focussed on improvement of processes in Customs Clearance and Logistics. Several Trade Facilitation measures which can improve the timelines for Clearances were also discussed.
The FFFAI Chairman further informed that the Federation would collaborate with the Ministry of Finance in initiating research studies to achieve EODB (Ease of Doing Business) and LPI (Logistics Performance Index) ranking. FFFAI also reiterated its full support to the CBIC, Ministry of Finance, Government of India in all its endeavours. “FFFAI is committed to extend its support and contribution to the government in achieving the $5 trillion economy by 2025. Logistics has a pivotal role to play in this regard and the Government of India collaborating with the logistics industry professionals will have to continue strengthening the trade facilitation measures through developing world standard infrastructure and formulating conducive policies for fast, smooth and end to end logistics operations. We have witnessed a significant jump (6 ranks) in the World Bank Logistics Performance Index-2023. We are confident that the collaborative approach would position the country on the top rank in the near future,” stated Mr. Shinde. He observed that FFFAI is highly satisfied as the interactions held with the Revenue Secretary were very encouraging from the perspective of facilitating the exim trade in the country.
