The Commerce and Industry Ministry on Monday launched Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMS) which will provide advance information about steel import to government and other stakeholders, including producers and consumers, to have effective policy interventions.
In this system, the importers of specified steel products will register in advance on the web portal of SIMS, providing necessary information.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that registration will be online and automatic, and no human intervention will be required.
The importer can apply for registration not earlier than 60th day and not later than 15th day before the expected date of arrival of import consignment.
The automatic registration number thus granted shall remain valid for a period of 75 days.
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The information about the steel imports provided by the importers on SIMS will be monitored by the Steel Ministry.
SIMS has been notified with effect from November 1. It shall require importers to submit advance information in an online system for import of 284 steel tariff lines in order to obtain an automatic registration number by paying prescribed registration fee.
The ministry has also launched Common Digital Platform for issuance of electronic Certificates of Origin (CoO).
The platform will be a single access point for all exporters, for all Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)/Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) and for all agencies concerned.
Certificate of Origin will be issued electronically which can be in paperless format if agreed to by the partner countries. Authorities of partner countries will be able to verify the authenticity of certificates from the website.
Further, it provides administrative access to Department of Commerce for reporting and monitoring purposes.
Exporters may register on this platform and apply for CoOs to any of the designated agencies. EIC (export inspection council) and its agencies are already on-boarded.
"The platform will be made live for FTAs in a phased manner as per the concurrence of the concerned partner countries. Various territorial divisions have already informed their partner countries. We are scheduled to start with the India-Chile PTA," the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.
India has 15 FTAs/PTAs with various partner countries, under which Indian exporters avail reduced import tariffs in the destination country.
In order to avail this benefit, the exporters must provide a preferential CoO. About 7 lakh certificates are issued annually by designated agencies.
"These verticals certify that exported goods are made in India. These certificates are issued by designated agencies in India after vetting of the rules of origin criteria as per the respective FTA/PTA," it added.
At present, preferential CoO is issued from various notified agencies around the country through manual processes.
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