Inclusion of these cities under TRA will enable the exporters to carry on their activities from any port in the country. So far exporters not covered by TRA were allowed to import goods only from ports where they were making exports. This restricted their activity to some extent and resulted in undue delays for either export or import from different ports.

According to the Chennai-based joint director general of foreign trade (Jt DGFT) M G Rao, the DEPB is a tradeable instrument and if TRA facility is not given "there will be no takers for the DEPB scheme."

Apparently the Coimbatore exporters through the chamber of commerce had directly taken up with the matter with Central Excise department but the request wasnot conceded on the grounds that such a facility of TRA did not exist for Coimbatore. Coimbatore is recognised for export-import purposes as a port area as it has inland container depot (ICD) facility which allows all documentation to be done from one central point.

In a chat with The Financial Express, Rao said he had taken up the matter again with DGFT so that exporters from Coimbatore, Tuticorin and also Guntoor in Andhra Pradesh could avail of the TRA facility and get the benefits under the DEPB scheme as well. Hyderabad and Bangalore already enjoy the facility.

The joint DGFT's office in Chennai has also given a new impetus to the counter assistance scheme (CAS) whereby all applications of exporters are attended and responded to within one day itself. Previously it took more than a week to clear the applications. The office receives five types of applications from exporters. Applications are for: duty exemption scheme (DES); import-export code numbers; DEPB; no norms cases under DES; andExport Promotion Credit Guarantee (EPCG).

On an average the local DGFT office receives about 65-70 applications every day and according to Rao these are dealt with on the same day as five people now attend to these applications.

In the case of "no norms" cases under DES, the commerce ministry has specified input-output norms to get licences and then DES benefits for exporters. Already some 4800 norms are notified as standard norms.

However for new products the no norms criteria is applied. A zonal advance licensing committee of which the Jt DGFT is the chairman adopts the norms for these products and gets DGFT appproval before notifying them as standard norms.

According to Rao, the Jt DGFT has been given more powers to grant special import licenses (SIL) up to Rs 5 crore limit (earlier the Jt DGFT had a limit of only Rs 1 crore) for no norms cases.

The commerce ministry has also decentralised the issue of export house certificates. The office of the Jt DGFT in Chennai now is authorised to issuecertificates for the entire southern region.

The Chennai office of Jt DGFT is also planning to introduce schemes like deemed export and export house certification and SIL within two weeks to facilitate exporters. The deemed export scheme will include aspects like duty drawback, special imprest licence, special import licence and refund of central excise.

INSIGHT
Exporters demand must be considered

For exporters who also import substantial quantities of dutiable goods at the same port, not having the "Telegraphic Release Advice" facility for the DEPB scheme would not matter much as they would themselves be able to exhaust the credits in their pass-books. However, exporter-importers who use several ports find it difficult to function without the facility as this leads to unnecessary delays in taking advantage of the DEPB scheme. Not having the facility also affects the prospect of getting a good price for DEPB credits from a third party. To ensure that exports are encouraged uniformlythroughout the country, use of the DEPB credits granted in one port area in another port area should be made possible without any obstructions. The demand of Coimbatore and Tuticorin-based exporters should therefore, be considered favourably.