Engineering exporters seek Finance, Comm Min to work closely

Engineering exporters today met the DGFT to provide inputs for the foreign trade policy 2014- 19 and suggested setting up of a panel comprising officials from Finance and Commerce Ministries to remove ambiguity in policies and resolve issues in a timely manner.
"A major historical problem is the conflict between the position taken by the Commerce Ministry and Revenue Department, resulting in acute harassment for the exporters. Policies are formulated but Notifications are made ambiguous," engineering exporters body EEPC India said.
"We suggest that a committee be formed under the Commerce Secretary which includes, the DGFT and his senior officers, senior revenue department officials and the stakeholders like export promotion councils whose members so that issues can be sorted out in a time-bound fashion," it said.

The meeting with the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Madhusudan Prasad was part of the consultation process of formulating the foreign trade policy (FTP) for the period 2014-19, which will be unveiled by the new government.
"Clearly, the foreign trade policy can ensure that guidelines that are formulated by one Department are also honoured by the other wings of the Administration. Otherwise, the very purpose of such progressive measures is defeated," EEPC India Chairman Anupam Shah said.
All exports and imports related activities are governed by the FTP. It mainly aims at enhancing the country's exports and use trade expansion as an effective instrument of economic growth and employment generation. The five year FTP (2009-14) ended on March 31, 2014.