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Several new initiatives were taken by the GoI, in recent times, to facilitate trade. These new steps (up to March 2017) were aimed at adopting internationally benchmarked best practices—major ones of them are as given below:
(i) e-Filing & e-Payment: Applications for various trade services can be filed online and application fees paid through electronic transfer. The
number of mandatory documents required for exports and imports has also been cut down to just three each (which is comparable with international benchmarks).
(ii) Single window for Customs: Under this project, that importers and exporters electronically submit their customs clearance documents at a single point with customs. Permissions required from other regulatory agencies (such as animal quarantine, plant quarantine, drug controller and textile committee) could be obtained online without the having to separately approach these agencies.
The single window is aimed at providing importers/exporters a single point interface for customs clearance, thereby reducing personal interface with governmental agencies, dwell time and cost of doing business.
(iii) 24x7 customs clearance: The facility of ‘24x7 customs clearance’ has been made available at 18 seaports and 17 air cargo complexes. This move is aimed at faster clearance of import and export, reducing dwell time and lowering the transaction cost.
(iv) Paperless environment: The government aims to move towards a paperless 24x7 working trade environment. A new facility has been created to upload documents in exporter/importer profile so that exporters are not required to submit documents repeatedly.
(v) Simplification: Attention has also been paid to simplifying various ‘aayat niryat’ forms, bringing in clarity in different provisions, removing ambiguities and enhancing electronic governance. A mobile application also launched by the DGFT (Director General of Foreign Trade) in October 2016.
(vi) Training/Outreach: ‘Niryat Bandhu Scheme’, a training/outreach programme is aimed at Skill India—organised at MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) clusters with the help of export promotion councils (EPCs) and other willing ‘industry partners’ and ‘knowledge partners’. The DGFT in collaboration with the IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade) has launched ‘Niryat Bandhu at Your Desktop’, an online certificate programme in export-import business. Another training programme has been launched by the Department of Commerce (DoC) for exporters located in the major export clusters/cities. It focuses on
training exporters to utilize free trade agreements (FTA).
(vii) Participation of States/UTs: In July 2015, a Council for Trade Development and Promotion (CTDP) was set up to ensure continuous dialogue with the governments of states/ union territories (UTs) on measures for providing an international trade-enabling environment and for making them active partners in boosting India’s exports.
(viii) Once 90 per cent of the FDI inflows are now under ‘automatic route’ together with fully converted to ‘online’ procedure, the Government decided in the Union Budget 2017-18 to phase out (abolish) the multi- ministerial body foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) in the year. In future, the FDI proposals not coming under the automatic route will be considered by either the concerned ministries or the regulatory body.
(ix) The Union Budget 2017-18 promised further liberalisation of the FDI policy regarding which the announcements will be coming up in the year.
The Government of India has requested the state/UTs to develop their export strategy, appoint export commissioners, address infrastructure constraints restricting movement of goods, facilitate refund of value-added tax (VAT)/octroi/state-level cess, address other issues relating to various clearances and build capacity of new exporters in order to promote exports.