MARAN ANNOUNCES
SETTING UP OF COMMITTEE TO REORIENT DGFT ROLE TO
ENSURE GREATER TRANSPARENCY
EXPORTS
ON TARGET DURING 2002-2003
DGFT
PORT OFFICERS MEETING BEGINS
Shri
Murasoli Maran, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, today
announced the setting up of a 3-member in-house Committee to reorient
and further fine-tune the functioning of the Directorate General
of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in the light of the present liberalised
trade regime by simplifying and eliminating layers of decision
making, wherever required, in order to ensure greater transparency.
Inaugurating the 2-day meeting of DGFT Port Officers here this
morning, Shri Maran indicated that the Committee, headed by Shri
P.P. Prabhu, former Commerce Secretary, would include Shri Shyamal
Ghosh, former Telecom Secretary and Shri S. B. Mahapatra, Textile
Secretary (both former DGFTs). Elaborating on the objectives of
the Committee, the Minister said that it
would aim at "making the process speedy, simple and transparent
and making it more export-friendly so that even an inexperienced
village artisan can export without difficulties and bureaucratic
impediments". Shri Dipak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary
and Shri L. Mansingh, DGFT were present on the occasion along
with Shri Anup Pujari, Additional DGFT and other senior officers
of the DGFT organisation including the Port Officers. Describing
the 2-day interaction as a part of a mid-term analysis of the
current Exim Policy with a view to sustaining and further accelerating
exports, Shri Maran said that on the basis of the
trends so far he was confident that the export growth target of
12% set for the current year 2002-03 would be achieved.
Shri
Maran emphasised that the Port Officers had a key role to play
in attaining the country’s trade goals and in the implementation
of all export promotion measures, including schemes such as like
Assistance to States for Infrastructural Development for Exports
(ASIDE) which seeks to actively involve the State governments
in export promotion. Referring to the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
Scheme as a critical area, the Minister complimented the Port
Officers for having successfully implemented the one-day licensing
scheme and added that the next step would be on-line payment and
use of digital signatures to mark the successful culmination of
computerisation of the entire gamut of operations of the DGFT.
He further assured that Port Officers would be consulted while
formulating the Exim Policy.
Shri
Mansingh pointed out that the basic objective of the 2-day meeting
was to take stock of the implementation of the current Exim Policy
and also to go through all the parameters of trade through Ports
by way of simplifying procedures so as to achieve the target of
doubling the country’s exports by the year 2007. He assured that
the DGFT would strive to achieve the export target set for the
current year. Shri Mansingh described the Port Officers as the
operating arm of the Ministry and informed that this mid-term
interaction would henceforth be a regular feature.
