Presentation by Gave Sarkari Managing DirectorVice President Port Community System

Maritime Agenda 2020 which is a vision document for the next 10 years, doubles port capacities by 2020, what more will need to be embraced side by side, and not in bits and pieces, is the need of an Integrated Port community system that encompasses all related parties, be it the Ministry, the ports, the customs, the Excise, the CISF, the shipping lines, the agents, the forwarders, the shippers, the consignees, the clearings agents, the CFS, the terminals, the transporters, the FTWZs/ DGFT, Banks, etc etc. Only then we will truly in its real sense get on to exercising the Mantra of “Ease of Doing Business in India” & be transparent as well. This will be the true liberator of trade from the shackles of existing acts, regulations, and processes, many of whom were incorporated almost 60 years ago or more. Today piece meal half baked measures are being introduced, whereby a paper replaced by an , is considered a DIGITIZATION success. It is no rocket science, and is being used by most major ports globally. The absolute need for a PORT COMMUNITY SYTEM has been raised at various forums by the trade and by the shipping community. But still a lot of work still needs to be done to have a versatile robust PCS in India.

Port Community System A SINGLE WINDOW CONCEPT Covering information flow between all related parties Right from Cargo booking/ Customs Clearance / transportation / advance list / load-list / Bay plan / Manifest / Invoicing / Funding/ drawbacks To move from a platform where one needs to “Seek information” to a platform providing “Ready information” in a transparent manner

CUSTOMS / PREVENTIVE / OTHER GOVT. AUTHORITIES Port Users today! Stuck in Complex web of flow of information Mountains of paper Filing Infinity no. of documents with often repeated data….. Errors Clearance Delays SHIPPING AGENT IMPORTERS/ EXPORTERS BANKS TRANSPORTERS DEPOTS / CFS/FTWZs PORT AUTHORITY CARRIER CHA/ FORWARDERS TERMINAL

SHIPPING AGENT FREIGHT FORWARDER CUSTOMS / PREVENTIVE / OTHER GOVT. AUTHORITIES TRANSPORTERS IMPORTERS/ EXPORTERS PORT AUTHORITY BANKS CARRIER CHA CFS / TERMINAL All Port Community Members at the same “VIRTUAL TABLE” A Self Providing, Information Platform

It is no rocket science, and is being used by most major ports globally BARCELONA And Many More…..

Major Advantage of PCS for all these Global Ports:

Benefits of PCS for Indian Ports Move to Paperless regime Reduce Transaction time Reduce inefficiencies in processesSmooth flow of Electronic Data

PCS in India: There but still in bits & pieces PCS in its existing form has automated very few of the overall transactions and there is an opportunity to do substantially more. In the current state only few stake holders namely Ports, Shipping Lines, Customs, CONCOR and CFS Operators are able to use this platform for EDI and that too for a limited set of information. This EDI is mostly one way and not multidirectional. Various other stake holders like, banks, RBI, Shippers, Trade associations, Export Promotion councils, Clearing Agents, Shipping Lines, Consolidation Agencies, surveyors, transporters, Inspection Agencies, other Govt Bodies are not part of this platform. The scope of system to be made much larger to include all the above stake holders in the trade and under a Single Cargo Community System.

PCS in India: A versatile, robust platform needed The platform be made so versatile and robust that it should facilitate multidirectional Data Interchange between all the stake holders in the entire trade, the platform should have following features: 1.A self sustaining model to fund its development, maintenance and timely enhancement to keep up with trade dynamics 2.All entities to submit the data to a Central Repository and any entity in the Eco System should be able pull the data from this platform for its requirement 3.Data should be available on reciprocal basis, it has to be multidirectional, currently it only permits one way traffic that too with very limited entities 4.A time bound plan to Identify and dematerialise all the paper transactions between all the entities involved in trade 5.Joint Ownership of all Stake Holders to ensure participation 6.Participation of all Govt Bodies/Depts/organisations under 4 ministries of Shipping, Finance, Commerce and Civil Aviation

PCS can be improvised further IssuesSuggestions The differences of standards/format used during the document exchange between some of the stakeholders make the electronic document exchange of little use to the partner. Message formats to be standardized There is no centralized system that can do the conversion from one standard format to another and make the information available to all the players involved. PCS will take care of the conversion of the message formats It is quite difficult to locate a container in many Ports’ CFS since no yard plan is followed currently and if there is any, it’s not updated and conveyed to Agent/CHA when the containers are shifted from the original location to another. Ports have to maintain the Yard Plan and should be updated in real time

PCS can be improvised further IssuesSuggestions Stakeholders still need to submit paper documents in many counters, though the functions of the counter is automated, as there is no link between various existing systems implemented in the Ports. Ports internal systems should be connected with all the other departments of the Port. The IGM hard copies are still submitted by Shipping Agent in most of the ports since the IGM (EDI message)from Shipping Agent or Customs is not used by the port. Port Systems either don’t have an option to do import the IGM message or it can’t interpret the messages. Once PCS is in place, IGM can be received by the Port from PCS or Port can directly receive the IGM from the Customs (In case if there is no integration between customs and Port Community System) To issue the LEO, Custom officer checks all the applications, then goes back to office and enters the details onto the system. Instead, he can use any mobile device to issue LEO. The dwell time can be reduced substantially by this. Customs will have to adapt to more efficient time-saving means

PCS can be improvised further IssuesSuggestions Collection of DO is partly manual. CHA has to go to different Shipping Agents for getting DOs for different importers the CHA represents DO can be received on-line as being followed by few lines. Many Shipping lines/ Agents doesn’t have message translators to translate the messages to the format acceptable to customs. PCS should have the message translator The Port systems cannot provide information about the cargo once it leaves its boundaries. i.e. when the cargo is transported out by rails and trucks. Railway and ICD also included in PCS Gate-officer does not have access to the necessary information (like Bill of Entry). All gates of the Ports should be well connected with the Ports internal system Import and Export Document goes through lot of small changes / amendments. Currently it is not easy for the stakeholders to carry out the amendments. Amendments can be done through On-line if customs accepts

PCS can be improvised further IssuesSuggestions Shipping Agent and other stakeholders need to directly enquire with the Port regarding Vessel Arrival/ Departure information and other vessel, cargo and container movement status as there is no real time status update or checking option available in the current system Web services can be used to find out Vessel Arrival /Departure details Currently, there is no reminder or notification mechanism in place if there is a delay in processing or approval. Port Community System cansend a reminder to the recipient who is not approving for long time. Gate in and gate out in the port is quite difficult and time consuming due to the manual verification of the document in the gate. Good amount of the time will be saved by streamlining the gate in/out passes issuance and verification of the passes at the gate. Port’s Gate should have the PC and is connected with the Port’s Internal System

PCS can be improvised further IssuesSuggestions Bills / Invoices should be standardized into a common international format across the ports although the tariffs by different ports may be different PCS Finance related messages are standardized Port can push bills files to banks and banks send EDI response back. But Port must send payment details, for example, for which items are these bills for. PCS should reconcile the details. Should be under PCS scope Bay plan/yard plan report should be graphical and published on-line. Can be done in PCS as many Global PCS have the option There should some provision to change type of the Vessel between Foreign and Coastal during the voyage Option in PCS Rail operators are using their own train codes while JNPT is using their own train codes and messages exchange between them cannot be achieved. Can be included in PCS

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