The Regional Office of The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) recently organised a trade meet with the exporter members of Gujarat and other stakeholders to discuss the logistics issues and challenges they faced. The discussion took place in the presence of Dr. Nitin Seth, HOD Quantitative Techniques, CTFL, IIFT-Delhi. 

The meet was part of an initiative by the government, steered by CTFL, towards the development of a sector specific Logistics Performance Index which would help boosting efficiency in this sphere.

Dr. Seth gave a detailed presentation on the survey activity they are conducting in partnership with GJEPC, the process being adopted to gather information which includes meetings, online survey, conference in November etc., and said that the final report is expected to be released in Jan-Feb 2020.   

Hitesh Shah, Member, Regional Committee Gujarat appreciated the initiative of IIFT and GJEPC to jointly address logistics challenges faced by the trade to boost exports and “ease of doing business”. He raised concerns related to the approval of SNZ in Surat, setting up of Air Cargo facility at Surat airport, regular connectivity of flight between Surat – Mumbai to enable trade to transfer goods faster and more safely than at present. He also spoke about the demand from the trade for a diamond finance branch/division of banks in Surat, the integration of systems between Customs, RBI and banks to prevent delays in shipping bill details being reflected in EDPMS, etc.

Jilpa Sheth, RD, Gujarat spoke about the objective of the meeting and its expected outcome.  She put forward issues concerning activation of ports of Gujarat including the demand for full-time, dedicated officers for appraisal of studded jewellery at Ahmedabad and Surat ports, Customs clearance facility in Rajkot, hand-carriage facility at Ahmedabad port, process for EOU units for quality check and exports, etc.

Exporter-members, heads of trade associations, representative from Customs, DGFT-Surat, India Post, CHAs and Logistics etc. were present. Participants shared their views on D-link of bank guarantee for AEO status holder, issue of rough diamond description, bank not providing GR waiver in certain cases, full-fledged Foreign Post Office in Surat instead of extension of Ahmedabad, etc.

***