CII organises Stakeholders’ Consultation on Enhancing EXIM
Kolkata: CII organised the Stakeholders’ Consultation on Enhancing Export-Import in Kolkata on Tuesday. The initiative was designed to identify the issues of the exporters which contain the maximum reach of export potential of the state.
Important industries, logistics companies, MSMEs of the state attended the consultation and utilised the platform to speak about the issues they face to the DGFT, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Customs officials.
Vandana Yadav, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Industry, Commerce & Enterprise, Govt of West Bengal outlined the importance of exports in bringing a multiplier effect in the labour market of the region by increasing the wage and thus the market return from the system. She mentioned about the upcoming logistics policy and the export promotion policy of the state.
She underlined the priorities of the government of bringing new export stakeholders into the system, reducing the compliance burden of export, and streamlining the major issues of the logistics vertical through the Suvidha Portal.
Rathendra Raman, IRTS, Chairperson, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata in his remarks said that around 90 per cent of volume and 70 per cent of the revenue of trade is done through the waterways of the country. Talking about ports of eastern region, he highlighted the 15 per cent increase in capacity building in the last year. About the SMPK, further he said that the strength of the port lies in the proactiveness of the government, the mineral, river & electricity abundance of the state with an access to the large hinterland of the land locked and the northeastern states. Raman also mentioned about the robust STS operation of the SMPK, the 11 per cent growth last year. Embracing the paperless EXIM system to reduce the compliances, launching the SATHI application, setting up the gateway way port for Balagarh are among the next priorities of the state government, he added. He also spoke about the 12 mega projects that will be implemented through PPP model in the coming days.
Hitesh Godara, IRS, Commissioner Customs, Kolkata pitched about the paperless processing of customs. TSK (Turant Seva Kendra), Anonymised Escalation Mechanism (AEM), Authorised Economy Operator were the focus of his deliberations. He emphasised about the default payment facilities, pre-gate facilities and made those present aware about the efficient implication of GST on making faster custom payments clearance.
Anand Mohan Mishra, Deputy DGFT, Kolkata talked about the potential of newly launched Foreign Trade Policy. He claimed that the policy will play a pivotal role in the decentralization process of export hub. The e-commerce export will increase and eventually the atomization of the export activities will happen with less compliance, he added. He mentioned about Amnesty scheme which will waive the interest rate of duty to a larger extend.
Sanjay Budhia, Chairman, CII National Committee on EXIM & Co-Chair International Trade & Logistics Sector Committee, BGBS & Managing Director, Patton International set the context of the consultation by opining that the customs, port and the state are working as a proactive team to enhance exports from this part of the world. Export as Engine of Growth creates employment, manufacturing activities and have all round multiplier effect. World is looking at India. It is not China plus, now it is China alternate. The time is now. There could not be a better combination of all the major policy makers and implementers, who are here to help in achieving the Vision & Mission to double the States’s exports of Rs 1 lakh crores and achieve $1 trillion merchandise exports and $1 trillion in service exports by 2030.
