Round-the-clock Customs clearance at eight Custom ports in the country was among the slew of measures to bring down transaction costs suggested in the report of the ‘Task Force on Transaction Cost in Exports’, which was released by the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, here on Tuesday.
The ports are Vizag, Kolkata, Jamnagar, Mangalore, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Mumbai, Bhubaneswar and Chennai.
The government feels that a permanent reduction in transaction costs through initiatives outlined in the report will have a long-term positive impact on the competitiveness of India’s exports.
Reducing transaction costs should be an "ongoing task", said the Finance Minister.
In India, the transaction cost for exporters is around 7-8 per cent of the total value of the cargo, among the highest in the world.
The country’s exports rose by 36.4 per cent year-on-year to $ 22.5 billion in December 2010, the highest growth rate in the last 33 months.
During the April-December period of the current fiscal, outbound shipments grew by 29.5 per cent to $ 164.7 billion from $ 127.1 billion in the same period last year.
Source: Exim News Service: NEW DELHI, Feb. 9