Our loss will be China’s gain as they push for market access: Indian exporters

March 28, 2020: Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) from different parts of the country, in a video conference with Piyush Goyal, minister of commerce & industry; Hardeep Singh Puri, minister of civil aviation; Dr Anup Wadhawan, commerce secretary and Amit Yadav, director-general, DGFT, showed their concerns about the lockdown and its effect of exports.

The export associations raised their concern that the loss in exports that will be China’s gain which is using all means to gain greater market access with increased export rebate VAT. Exporters also requested the government to allow all agencies including custom house agencies (CHAs), freight forwarders, transporters, shipping lines, courier companies, plant quarantine, EIC, certificate of origin issuing agencies and AD category banks to function with minimal staff, since if one of them is not functioning, the export/import chain is broken.

Points raised by Federation Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) includes:

To ministry of home,
• All manufacturing companies in exports should be allowed to operate, with 50% of the manpower, with full sanitation and safety with social distancing norms as loss in exports will result in market loss which will be extremely difficult to recover.

To DGFT,
• Extend the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020 by one year including extension of Status Holder Certificates till March 31, 2021.

• Extend or re-introduce Interest Equalisation Scheme for 2020-2025 with effect from April 1, 2020

• Announce amnesty Scheme for old Advance, EPCG and EOUs for regularization of default by payment of only customs duty without interest and penalty to lessen the burden on industry.

• Extend import validity of all existing authorization valid on or after March 1, 2020 till March 31, 2021 or till their existing validity, whichever is later.

• Extend Export Obligation (EO) of all advance/EPCG authorizations with valid EO on or after March 1, 2020 till March 31, 2021 or till their existing validity of EO, whichever is later.

To ministry of commerce
• All agencies involved in Exports Imports including customs, CHAs, Freight forwarders, Transporters, Shipping lines, Courier Companies, Plant quarantine, EIC, Certificate of Origin issuing agencies, AD Banks etc should function with minimal staff, since if one of them is not functioning, the export/import chain is broken. Alternatively, the scanned copy of documents sent from official email, may be accepted by all countries in such grave situation. The countries may be asked to release documents in absence of certification on provisional basis with subsequent submission of document.

• ECGC: Waiver of ECGC premium on pre–shipment credit levied by banks for next 3 months at-least which may be extended, if warranted.

To banking/RBI,
• Extension in pre and post shipment credit by a minimum of 180-270 days, exemption from interest and penalty on crystallization of bills on due date, loss in forward cover to be converted in interest free loan to be paid after 90-180 days and auto enhancement of credit limit by 10%, already introduced by many banks, without additional documents may be permitted. Repatriation period be enhanced from 9 to 15 months and exemption from caution listing under EDPMS till March 31, 2021.

To ministry of finance:
• Clearance of all exports benefits to exporters immediately including IGST/GST, Duty Drawback, ROSL, RoSCTL etc including to risky exporters (against a Bond) and relaxation in physical examination norms due to lesser availability of manpower.

Piyush Goyal said “Export-Import is an important activity of the country, and at the same time, lockdown was necessary for the safety and health of 130 crore Indians. Therefore, a fine balance has to be maintained, and solutions found to reduce the difficulties.”

He said that the suggestions made in the conference will be taken up in right earnest, and action will be taken soon. He assured the export and import groupings that the government will try to be accommodative with their reasonable demands, and come out with practical outcomes.

The organizations which took part in the video conference included FIEO, AEPC, SRTEPC, GJEPC, CLE, CEPC, Shefexil, Pharmexcil, Electronic & Software EPC, Services EPC, Silk EPC, EEPC, EPCH, Project EPC, Texprocil, Telecom EPC, Cashew EPC, Plastic EPC, Sports Goods EPC, Capexcil, Chemexcil, EPC for EOU & SEZ, Wool & Woollen EPC, HEPC and IOPEC.