Payment points that had plagued importers following the switchover to a brand new customs assortment interface from April 1 have largely been sorted out now, in accordance with senior authorities officers, however industry continues to face a couple of hiccups with the method.
“To the best of my knowledge, cargo clearance has not faced problems even when the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) introduced a new Electronic Credit Ledger (ECL) payment system on the Icegate portal for importers,” a senior authorities official informed The Hindu.
“The problem was with regard to the integration with the payment gateway, which they have managed to sort out. But for that, cargoes were not being held up,” he asserted, stressing that April’s discount in India’s items import invoice was by no means linked to the cost platform’s challenges.
In April, imports shrank 14% to hit a 15-month low of $49.90 billion, as per preliminary estimates from the Commerce Ministry, taking the merchandise commerce deficit to a 20-month low of $15.24 billion.
Importers say that the brand new system has seen some enhancements in current weeks however some issues preserve cropping up.
“Despite our best efforts, there is still a problem with sending payments to credit ledgers via online banking and other NEFT/RTGS processes at the Icegate Portal,” stated a garment exporter. “Additionally, we have been experiencing errors while carrying out the payment process,” added the exporter, who spoke on the situation of anonymity.
“This has caused delays in clearing import shipments at ports for the past 30 days, resulting in significant demurrages. We are unable to meet the production schedules for export orders as planned,” he added.
Some importers in Tiruppur have demanded reintroduction of internet banking facility to remit duties and different funds to the Customs Department by the Icegate portal.
According to an export-oriented textile unit in Tiruppur, the brand new ECL cost system now works nicely on some days however not on a regular basis but. “There is uncertainty on when the system will work fine or act up,” stated the agency’s accounts supervisor. “Sometimes, the portal crashes or the ECL gateway becomes dysfunctional and we are unable to track the payments made to the ECL,” the supervisor, who didn’t want to be recognized, added.
Tiruppur Exporters Association president Okay.M. Subramanian stated that whereas on-line cost of responsibility was getting barely delayed, importers had an possibility now to pay manually by banks.
According to P. Subramanian, former president of Coimbatore Custom House and Steamer Agents Association, the net cost issue had not been resolved absolutely. But importers had the choice of paying by banks. While on-line funds could possibly be made at any time of the day, some importers now needed to go to the financial institution in particular person, which was a time-consuming course of, he noticed.
