FFFAI discusses EXIM Trade issues with Revenue Secretary

November 29, 2017: A delegation from the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI), led by Chairman Ashish Pednekar recently met with Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.

The delegation discussed on issues pertaining to zero tolerance of corruption, complete digitalization of custom broker processes, reduction of dwell time and cost, FFFAI being a self regulating authority of custom brokers in India, Goods and Service Tax Act, implementation of circulars and instructions issued in this regard and FIATA World Congress 2018 being organised in New Delhi.

The Revenue Secretary has advised the delegation to intimate to his office regarding cases where undue delays and harassment are caused by government officers in clearances with an intent of corruption, so as to bring in complete transparency in the process of clearances. He also sought support of the Federation to improve the ranking as far as Ease of Doing Business in logistics is concerned.

The Federation also requested Adhia for the support of the Ministry of Finance for the FIATA World Congress 2018, the global event in logistics happening for the first time in India. The Revenue Secretary assured complete non-financial support to the FIATA World Congress, 2018.

The meeting with the Revenue Secretary was also attended by Vanaja Sarna, Chairperson, Central Board of Excise and Customs; PK Das, Member (Customs) and A Satya Srinivas, Joint Secretary (Customs). In the meeting, issues faced by custom brokers with relation to Customs and Service Tax were discussed in detail. The Revenue Secretary appreciated the concerns raised during the meeting and assured resolution of the issues.

The members of the Federation also had a meeting with Director General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence Dr John Joseph. They apprised him of the pending litigations with respect to service tax. He assured them of resolution of their concerns.