Agriculture
i. The five major Regional Plant Quarantine Stations have been fully equipped to perform their function of preventing the introduction of any insect, fungus or other pest, which is or may be destructive to crops, to facilitate safe global trading in agriculture.
ii. The plant quarantine services at International Airports Chennai and Mumbai will now be available round the clock. Also, the issuances of Phytosanitary Certificate necessary for trading will be expedited.
iii. A committee of experts is constituted to look into providing Animal Quarantine and Certification Station (AQCS) facilities at ICD Kanpur and Jalandhar. Also, it has been decided in-principle to allow imports of raw leather at ICD Kanpur, modalities will be notified shortly.
Civil Aviation
iv. The Delhi International Airport has reduced the charges levied for screening express cargo and courier shipments from Rs 6 to Rs 1.65 per kg for the export courier at its Express Courier Terminal at IGI Airport.
Commerce/DGFT
v. As per the Public Notices No. 3/ (RE: 2010)/2009-2014, dated 23/08/2010, DGFT has done away with the requirement of submitting Chartered Engineer’s Certificate while submitting application for Advance authorization under paragraph 4.7 of the hand book of procedures.
vi. The norms approved by Norms Committee for same export and import products for authorization obtained under paragraph 4.7 (ad -hoc norms) will now be valid for one year (both past and future). Earlier these norms covered only prospective authorization.
vii. DGFT vide its Public Notice No.24/2009-2014 dated 17/1/2011 has dispensed with requirement of submitting Performa invoice for obtaining an import authorization.
viii. There would be no need to submit Performa Invoice for obtaining export authorization for restricted items (except SCOMET items) as per the Public Notice No.20 dated 5/1/2011.
ix. In case of the DEPB Scrip, if the application has been filled online, there would be no need to submit hard copies of DEPB EDI Shipping Bills.
x. MDA approvals would now be made in the name of organization and not individual. In this new scenario, even if the nomination changes at the last moment for participation in international fairs, company would still be able to avail MDA benefit.
xi. Exporters would now be able to club Annual Advance Authorisation with Advance Authorisation.
xii. Now the exporters would be able to file EPCG application and Advance Authorisation off line and submit at a later time. This would facilitate speedier filing and ease burden on DGFT server.
Department of Revenue
xiii. 24X7 customs clearance would now be available at eight custom ports, namely- Vizag, Kolkata, Jamnagar, Mangalore, JNPT, Mumbai, Bhubeneshwar and Chennai.
xiv. The Recognised Status Holders have been extended benefit of Accredited Clients Programme (ACP) to provide them assured facilitation vide CBEC Circular No.29/2010-Customs dated 20th August, 2010.
xv. A single factory stuffing permission valid for all customs ports has been introduced; subject to certain condition vide Circular No.20 dated 22/7/2010.
xvi. The CEBC has issued instructions to all its administrative staff to ensure timely refund of credit balance in CENVAT account to exporters.
xvii. There would be no need to submit Mate Receipt to Central Excise for establishing date of export.
Department of Financial Services (Banking)
xviii. RBI has instructed all the Banks to ensure post shipment credit is available at prescribed rates up to 180 days as stipulated incase of over due bills.
xix. Leading banks have reduced the processing charges for renewal of Annual Limit.
xx. Booking charges for the foreign currency have been reduced from Rs 750 per transaction to Rs 400-500 per transaction.
xxi. The leading banks have again been instructed by RBI and have confirmed to extending the Pre-shipment credit in foreign currency at LIBOR+2% with no additional charges levied.
Issues under implementation
xxii. A single bond would now be required to be submitted by the organization for multiple authorizations to be obtained from customs reducing the unnecessary paper work both at custom and organization level. This would be implemented in few months time and would save transaction cost of Rs 400 crores.
xxiii. With a view to expedite refund of service tax on output services, it is proposed to introduce an “All Industry Service Tax Rate” on the lines of “All Industry Rate of Duty Drawback.
