FIEO hails eBRC; calls for including all Exim agencies with EDI

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SME Times News Bureau | 10 Jan, 2014
The apex exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Thursday urged the Government to incorporate all export-import agencies with the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).

"All the agencies involved in exim transaction should come on one EDI platform for sharing of document and information so that the transaction time and cost are reduced and the process is made completely seamless," M Rafeeque Ahmed, President, FIEO in a press statement in New Delhi.

"This will also be a part of trade facilitation agreed at Bali Ministerial meeting," he added.

The EDI is aimed at reducing transaction costs and time by facilitating transfer of relevant data electronically that can be accessed by different Government agencies, reports media.

Hailing the success of eBRC (Electronic Bank Realization Certificate) project launched by DGFT for seamless transactions, M Rafeeque Ahmed, President, FIEO said, "The sharing of eBRC with Customs and State Authorities will result in quick settlement of VAT and dispense the need for submission of outstanding SDF/GR details to Customs."

"Exporters at certain ports face repeated problem, which at times result in withholding of their exports as well as drawback. Since the Bank Realization Certificate (BRC) details provided by the trade is not updated in the system at the local level. The direct transmission of such information will address the concern at the same time eliminating errors resulting from manual intervention."

Earlier, the banks issued physical copy of BRC to the exporters and no data mining or analysis was possible. The process for BRC issuance and subsequent utilization were largely manual and department centric. The exporters suffered most as they had to run to banks and government departments for claiming benefits.

BRC is required for discharge of export obligation and claiming of incentives under Foreign Trade Policy. BRC is also used by state government departments for refund of VAT. In addition, this data is an important economic indicator as it quantifies transaction level export earnings.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for sharing of foreign exchange realization data, also known as eBRC, said report.

e-BRC project enables banks to upload Foreign Exchange realisation information relating to merchandise goods exports on to the DGFT server under a secured protocol. So far 90 banks operating in India, including foreign banks and cooperative banks have uploaded more than 75 lakh e-BRCs on to the DGFT server, it added.