Paperless trade(eTrade) in India Presentation for UN/CEFACT Plenary 16 – 17 Sep T. A. Khan 1

Outline 1.Introduction 2. eTrade Initiatives 3. eTrade - The Project 4. Use of UN/CEFACT Standards 5. Achievements and Task Ahead 2

1. Introduction 3

1.1 Department of Commerce Deals with the country’s external trade and all matters connected with it. Formulates policies in the sphere of foreign trade. Exports of merchandise goods ( ) - $31.8 billion ( ) - $159 billion 4

1.2 Need for Paperless Trade Substantial progress on policy front. Focus required on streamlining and standardisation of procedures. Large number of agencies involved in clearances for international trade. Increase in exports to eTrade enabled countries. 5

1.3 Challenges Multiple entry/exit points and complex management issues Cumbersome procedures Enormous documentation Need for extensive process re-engineering Different stages of automation …. Contd. 6

Challenges Different priorities of organisations Lack of awareness on eTrade Non participation in community systems Adoption of standards 7

2. eTrade Initiatives 8

9 On 14 June 2000: Minimum agenda for e-Governance developed. GOI approves the National E-Governance Action Plan for implementation during the year Mission Mode Projects at the center, state and integrated service levels to create a citizen-centric and business- centric environment for governance included.... Contd. 2.1 eGovernance Initiatives

10 Electronic Government Procurement as a mission mode project with broad objectives : –Introduce procurement policy reforms –Improve efficiency of procurement (time and cost) –Standardization, streamlining and automation of the procurement processes –Create a conducive legal framework –Create a procurement framework, which is workflow based, easy to operate, seamless and leading to paperless process management –Provide equal opportunity to all vendors eliminating areas of discretion –Implement standard procurement processes using generic procurement platform(s) –To ensure adoption of adequate security measures (audit trail, authentication, integrity, non-repudiation, secrecy etc.) practices in e-procurement transaction –Undertake a comprehensive capacity building program across the government organizations Publication of procurement information mandatory (notices, Tenders, Contracts/Orders etc.) on government procurement portals e-Procurement mandatory above a decided threshold value (Rs. 25 Lacs in GoI) Development of a generic e-Procurement solution by NIC for wide adoption by any Government department/organization eGovernance Initiatives

11 Department of Commerce selected as the nodal agency Process Re-engineering National standards Education and awareness programs Pilot projects for private sector eTrade project Portal for single point interface with all community partners 2.2 Strategies

3. eTrade - the project 12

Efficient, transparent, secure electronic delivery of services by trade regulatory/facilitating agencies. Simplify procedures and reduce the transaction cost and time. Introduce UN/CEFACT standards and practices 3.1 Objective of the project 13

3.2 The Indian eTrade Community DGFT Customs/Central Excise Airlines Shipping Agents Port/CONCOR Importers/Exporters CHAs Indian Railways AEPC/Texprocil DGCIS RBI Banks ICD/CFS (Income Tax, ECGC, EXIM Bank, EIC, APEDA, MPEDA, State/local authorities) AAI 14

1.Customs (35 locations) 2.DGFT (35 locations) 3.Port Trusts (13 locations) 4.Airports (8 locations) 5.Container Corporation (38 locations) 6.Banks (106 locations) 7.RBI 8.Airlines 9.Indian Railways (1) 10.Export Promotion Organisations 11.DG commercial Intelligence / Statistics 12.Inland Container Depots / Container Freight Stations (50) 3.3 Project Spread 15

ICEGATE EDI messaging and Web Services ICES Core Transaction Processing LRMS Transaction Risk Processing Other Small Apps viz. in Chennai FTP over WAN NRMS National Risk Control Updation Server ‘Kandla’ server for directory updation DB link SQL net Internet Customs Officer On LAN Trade User Files EDI messages File upload HTTP/ SMTP Institutional User EG. DGFT Multiple Protocols DB link SQL net MES Message Exchange with Banks & Custodians Banks Ports FTP over LAN Service Centre Server for hosting the Application ICENET Customs FTP over LAN FTP

Directorate General of Foreign Trade 17

Sea Ports 18

CONCOR E-Token Digital Certificate Client Pc’s Firewall ONCOR CONCOR Web Server Database Server Bank Server’s

Airports 20

Banks Exporters/Importers /agents RBI 21 CustomsPortsCONCORDGFT Airports Bank BBank N.... RTGS Bank A

4. Use of UN/CEFACT Standards 22

 1988 : Adoption of Aligned Documentation System based on UN Layout key in  1991 : SW for pre-shipment export documents based on UN Layout key.  The migration to United Nations Electronic Trade Documents. 23

1996 : EDIFACT declared as national standard for EDI. –Message development groups constituted for Customs, Ports, Airports, Banking and Private sector 1995 : Establishment of Article Numbering & Bar Coding Institution (GS1) : SubCommittee on UN/LOCODE constituted. 24

5. Achievements and Task Ahead 25

 Uniformity and simplification of procedures  Re-engineered inter agency interfaces  Standards integration  Integration of eTrade community through a portal Integration of eTrade community through a portal  Significant reduction in transaction time of services like license application is disposed in 6 hrs. as compare to 45 days  Reduction and early detection of frauds 5.1 Achievements 26

Dispensation of manual systems. Smaller locations to be covered. Cross border paperless trading to be incorporated. e.g. – Electronic certificate of origin project – Customs declaration 5.2 Task Ahead 27

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