The system will do away with the need for brokers or exporters to travel to a port to submit documents to the customs authorities for initiating processes, Johri told the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Exports Summit.

Indian Customs Electronic Gateway (ICEGATE) is the national customs portal of CBIC that provides e-filing services including electronic filing of the bill of entry (import goods declaration), shipping bills (export goods declaration), e-payment of customs duty, common signer utility for signing all the customs documents, to trade, cargo carriers and other trading partners electronically.

Nearly 43,542 users are registered with ICEGATE who are serving over 12.5 lakh importers/exporters.

The average release time—measured by the time of arrival of goods to the port and their actual departure—of export cargo has been halved, Johri was quoted as saying by Indian media reports.

The Trade Facilitation Action Plan, which ends in 2023, has set a target of an average release time of 24 hours and 12 hours for exports through seaport and airport respectively.

He said 80-85 per cent of the average release time of export cargo is on account of the time taken after customs clears the consignments.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)