The Hindu Business Line : Exporters, importers urged to use e-services of DGFT

The Zonal Joint Director General of Foreign Trade, Mr M. Sai Kumar, on Wednesday called upon the exporters and importers to use the Department's e-enabled services extensively.

"You need not waste time and money on commuting to the DGFT office. Instead log on to our site to download forms, get the IEC (Importer-Exporter Code) and make electronic remittances," he said at a Seminar on `Effective Export Management Practices', organised jointly by the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Southern Region) and Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).

IEC process e-enabled

The IEC process has been e-enabled only two days ago. He assured the members of resolving the teething problem, should they encounter any, by August 15.

"Getting the application and code online is not mandatory, but the effort is aimed at speeding up the process and enabling a hassle-free environment," Mr Kumar told Business Line on the sidelines of the seminar.

Stating that the country had performed reasonably well on the export front, surpassing expectations, he said, "to nurture growth on this front, the Government has announced `Reward schemes'. During the current year, the thrust would be on two new schemes - Focus Market and Focus Products. These schemes would replace the Target Plus Scheme," he said.

He hinted that the Focus Market would give thrust to exports to the Latin American market among others, while textiles could possibly be included among the products listed under the Focus Product Scheme. "There is a demand for inclusion of textiles under this scheme," Mr Kumar said.

The scheme allows duty credit facility at 2.5 per cent of the FOB value of exports (on 50 per cent of the export turnover of notified products).

When asked about the response to the Reward Scheme, he said, "it is a recent announcement. The outcome would be known only in October. We have however started receiving applications."

Promoting exports

The Vishesh Krishi Upaj Yojana was being expanded to include village-industries based products for export benefit and for promoting services export, a number of features had been added in the `Served from India Scheme', he said.

He conceded that the existing Duty Exemption Schemes were of little help to the exporting community, but the introduction of the duty free import authorisation scheme would go a long way in facilitating imports. "However, to improve exports and for better export management, we need to have bank finance, better infrastructure and flexible labour laws. Our labour laws as yet are not flexible. The Government is aware of it, but we are only inching towards improving it," he said.

Mr S. Sasikumar, Joint Director General of Foreign Trade, Coimbatore said the entrepreneurs in this region should tap the opportunities in the chemical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology space instead of dwelling over past achievements.

More Stories on : Exports & Imports | E-Governance

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page