The Hindu Business Line : DGFT digital signature facility in Chennai

Mr L. Mansingh, DGFT, and Mr John Devasahayam, Managing Director, SafeScrypt Ltd, at the launch of digital signature facility in Chennai on Friday. — Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai , May 7

THE Union Government's goal is to bring down transaction costs for the Indian exporter and its move to allow digital signatures and bring in paperless transactions is a step in this direction, the Director General of Foreign Trade, Mr L. Mansingh, said here on Friday.

He inaugurated the Directorate General of Foreign Trade's (DGFT) digital signature facility in Chennai. The Chennai office is the first of DGFT's zonal divisions to allow digital signatures, said Mr R. Buhril, Zonal Joint Director of DGFT.

A digital signature is the electronic equivalent of a physical signature. The Union Government had reduced the application fee for digitally signed on-line applications to 50 per cent of the manual application's fee. Eventually digital signatures would be made compulsory, Mr Mansingh said. According to Mr Mansingh, an EXIM Survey in October 2002 took stock of the Government's attempts to reduce transaction costs for exporters. The survey's results showed that costs had come down, but still remained relatively high.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisations' Regional Chairman, Mr A. Shaktivel, who spoke on the occasion, supported the idea of DGFT transforming itself into a facilitator. He said the development would help exporters lower costs.

DGFT had tied up with SafeScrypt Ltd. to issue Digital Certificate services for filing on-line licence applications.

More Stories on : Exports & Imports | E-Governance

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