The country's import and export trade in liquid bulk cargoes such as mineral oils, vegetable oils, industrial chemicals and others are likely to expand rapidly in the coming years and the Government is keen to ensure that foreign trade activity in such bulk commodities continues unhindered, according to Mr S. Dutt Mazumdar, Chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs.

He was addressing a gathering of senior revenue officials from Mumbai and JNPT Customs houses, liquid cargo processors, trading house executives and service providers at the tenth anniversary interactive meeting of All India Liquid Bulk Import and Export Association (AILBIEA) here.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Nadir Godrej, Managing Director, Godrej Industries Ltd, recited a poetry he penned for the occasion and in his characteristic style pointed out that burgeoning size of the country's import in the coming years is likely to challenge infrastructure services, including handling at the ports and so on. He envisaged a major role for associations such as AILBIEA to bring more orderliness into the foreign trade activity.

Earlier, Mr Jayant Lapsia, AILBIEA President, highlighted the issues facing the country's liquid bulk trade including multiple levies of Octroi, cess, stamp duty and so on. These levies blunted the competitive edge of the trade and industry, he argued. India's import of crude oil in 2009-10 was a massive 159 million tonnes, while vegetable oil imports were a record 8.8 mt. Port and Customs infrastructure has to be strengthened to meet larger volumes.

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