FFFAI voices on uniformity

Secretaries of different departments and ministries attended the National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF). FFFAI was represented by Samir Shah, Chairman and S Ramakrishna, Vice Chairman.

Shah complimented the government on great initiatives on trade facilitation. “All the initiatives were noteworthy and welcomed by the industry. It is however, to be noted that the change has not been seen by all users and hence it appears that the implementation of the changes has not taken place. There is a gap between the intent of the government and reality on the ground,” he said.

“While infrastructure would take time to develop, there should be a target on proper implementation of all the existing systems and uniform

Joperations across the country. All decisions should be taken after consultations with stakeholders. For example, the reduction in dwell time what expected by MOCA should have been done with more sensitivity and understanding the issues of all participants and not only the custodians,” Shah opines.

The FFFAI Chairman also maintained that India does not have a concept of proper certification of personnel which needs to be the case for proper execution of processes which adds to a lot of cost. To address the same, it would be important that the Skill Ministry is sensitised to include logistics in all formats for training. FFFAI would be happy to be associated itself with any study to be done to bring about a uniformity of process.

The Cabinet Secretary agreed with the arguments that logistics is not being recognised as a standalone industry and there is a tendency to put whole logistics industry with individual ministries.

He recommended that the Ministry of Commerce would be the ideal ministry to take up logistics as an independent provision and work towards present issues faced by this sector.