‘Centre to launch single window clearance system for exports’.

To streamline exports, the Union Government is working on a single window clearance system and has formed an inter-ministerial working group for its implementation. This was announced by Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman S K Goel, who was in the city today.

Industrialists at an open house meeting with the CBEC chief, jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Exporters Organisation (FIEO) and Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), pointed out that they need to take clearance from many channels which wastes a lot of time. Goyal, however, did not give a deadline for introduction of the single window system.

He apprised that recently a notification (dated June 29, 2012) has been released giving further relaxation in the service tax refund. He also informed about the issuance notification in which service tax incidence on the export of services will be refunded. This will benefit service exporters and all pending cases will soon be resolved soon.

Goel apprised that for smooth flow of exports and imports, the government has taken various measures to reduce the dwell time. Citing an example, he mentioned that the dwell time taken by customs when goods are imported into India is less than 10 per cent of the overall process. He noted that earlier there use to be lot of physical checks for both imports and exports which has been substantially reduced now. He informed that for imports this facilitation has been extended to 70 per cent of the shipment while for exports this facilitation is 100 per cent, except for export-sensitive destinations.

In his welcome address, FIEO Vice-President J K Jain said that to achieve the export target of $500 billion by 2015, policies should be exporter-friendly and the government should play the role of a facilitator. Since export is the most important activity for an energy-starving country like India which has to import more than 75 per cent of its crude oil requirements, the government should encourage more and more units to join the export sector by making it more attractive, added Jain.

He said that India’s exports are being impacted by several factors such as the rising cost of export credit and slowdown in Europe and USA. The exporters asked for a deadline for GST to which the CBEC chairman replied, “Implementation of GST is a political matter and i cannot comment upon it.”

Source : indianexpress.com