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Documents required for exports reduced from five to three |
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NEW DELHI: The revenue department has agreed to reduce the number of documents required for exports from five to three, according to a senior official.
The move is as part of a government effort to make it easier to do business in India and in line with directorate general of foreign trade's recommendation in the 'Trade Across Borders' report. Once implemented, the measure will put India alongside the US, Canada, Japan, Singapore and the UAE in the club of nations that require just three export documents.
"The department of revenue has principally agreed to reduce the number of export documents. We have asked them to do it by March 31. But they are yet to get back to us on that," a senior commerce ministry official told ET, adding that the department is also talking with the shipping ministry to allow faster shipment movement at ports using the electronic route.
A report circulated to various government departments has looked at ways to reduce documentation for cross-border transactions and improve India's ranking in the World Bank's 'Doing Business' report, where the country slipped two notches in 2014 to the 142st spot.
According to the official, commerce secretary Rajeev Kher has asked his revenue department counterpart to merge two export documents—packing list and commercial invoice—leaving exporters with just three mandatory documents—bill of lading, commercial invoice and shipping bill. On the imports side, the government is working to cut mandatory documents from seven to four, according to a report.
DGFT is also bringing online procedures like Import-Export Code and cargo release order. According to the official quoted earlier, the World Bank has overestimated India's mandatory export documents. Its 'Doing Business' report counts seven mandatory documents for exports instead of just five.
Similarly, in case of imports, only seven are mandatory instead of 10 listed. "We have held a meeting with WB officials to ensure non-mandatory documents are not counted to calculate India's rankings," said the official.
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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