Exporters given relief from paperwork

Exporters, saddled with high transaction costs and time-consuming paper work, have been given some relief in this year���s Foreign Trade Policy. The government has offered reduced fees towards licensing charges and a total exemption in fees for exporters when they avail incentives under certain export development schemes, measures that can help lower transactions costs.

A road map for various e-filing initiatives, which will finally lead to paperless exchange of information between the directorate general of foreign trade and various other agencies, including Customs, have also been put in place.
All authorisations and licence applications will now attract lower fee, even as it gave a total exemption of fees for exporters��� availing the developmental schemes.

The maximum applicable fee in case of manual application for authorisation and licensing has been reduced to Rs 1 lakh from the existing Rs 1.5 lakh. Applications made in electronic format (Electronic Data Interchange��� EDI) will now attract a fee of only Rs 50,000 against Rs 75,000 earlier.

Exporters will also now get a full exemption of their fees for availing benefits under the various developmental schemes ��� Assistance to States for Developing Export Infrastructure and Allied Activities (ASIDE), Market Access Initiative (MAI), Market Development Assistance (MDA), and Towns of Export Excellence (TEE). These schemes are defined under chapter 3 of the Foreign Trade Policy, and are designed to develop the exports sector.

The government will also enable electronic message exchange between customs and the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) for these companies availing benefits beginning December 31, 2009. This will enable faster clearances for exporters and save them the hassle of physically filing documents.

The commerce ministry is also promoting the use of electronic systems with initiatives like EDI ports, electronic message exchange between Customs and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. For EDI ports the double verification of shipping bills by customs for DGFT schemes will also be dispensed with from December 2009.