Welcoming the much-needed booster for the exports sector, Sharad Kumar Saraf, President, FIEO said, “Slew of new measures announced for the exports sector in the form of incentives & refund of taxes, export finance, export facilitation, free trade agreements, engineering and handicrafts will not only go a long way in enhancing the growth prospects of the sector in the short-term but will also give it a much needed boost in the medium-term and long-term and will stimulate the overall economy.” FIEO Chief said that the new scheme of Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) with revenue burden of up to Rs 50,000 crore for the government, will completely replace all Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) from January 1, 2020 with the expectation that the new scheme will more than adequately incentivize the exporters than the existing schemes put together. “The new scheme looks attractive as it will neutralise all duties and levies suffered by the export products. Giving three months lead time till December 31 to the existing MEIS will remove the uncertainty creeping in the minds of the exporters and will greatly help to finalise their export orders,” he adds.

With an aim to support various segments of the industry and to give a boost to economy, P. S. Mishra, Member (Traffic), Railway Board, announced certain freight incentives to give a boost to the economy. The details on the freight rate related measures announced are as under: 1. Levy of Busy Season Charge Deferred: • BSC, which is levied @ 15 per cent from October 1 – June 30, has been deferred till further advice (except for iron ore and POL). • Coal & coke and container traffic are already exempt. 2. Waiver of supplementary charges on mini and two-point rakes: • The five per cent supplementary charges applicable on loading on mini and two-point rakes is being waived off. • This is likely to boost loading of smaller cargo sizes and help cement, steel, food grains and fertilizers loading. 3. Round-trip charging on container traffic: • As per haulage charge rating of container traffic, 0-50 km is the minimum distance slab for charging. • It is seen that container traffic in this ultra-short lead (0-50 km) is very low at present. • Therefore, round-trip charging of container trip has been introduced for less than 50 km on each way. • Under this scheme, haulage charge for 0-100 km slab will be charged for total to and from movement, instead of charging for 0-50 km slab each way. • Impact- this comes out to be about 35 per cent cheaper per TEU for the complete round-trip • It is expected to especially give a fillip to ex-im traffic between ports and ICDs. 3. Discount on movement of empty containers and empty flat wagons • A discount of 25 per cent …

Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Hardeep Singh Puri, Railways and Minister of State for Commerce & Industry have launched common digital platform for Issuance of electronic Certificates of Origin (CoO) in the capital. The platform will be a single access point for all exporters, for all FTAs/PTAs and for all agencies concerned. CoO will be issued electronically which can be in paperless format if agreed to by the partner countries. Authorities of partner countries will be able to verify the authenticity of certificates from the website. Further, it provides administrative access to Department of Commerce for reporting and monitoring purposes. Exporters may register on this platform and apply for CoOs to any of the designated agencies. Export Inspection Council of India (EIC) and its agencies are already on-boarded. Other agencies are in the process of registering on the platform. The on-boarding process is only for the purposes for payment integration so that the application fees may flow to the respective agencies.

The Prime Minister inaugurated the state-of-the-art terminal through a two -way digital communication system at an event in Ranchi, Jharkhand. This is the second of the three multi modal terminals being constructed on river Ganga under Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). The new secretariat building in the state capital will come up at an estimated cost of Rs 1238.92 crore. The cargo terminal, which was inaugurated online by the prime minister from here, has been built by Inland Waterways Authority of India on River Ganga at Sahibganj. It will have a cargo storing capacity of 30 lakh tonne per year, a stockyard and parking and berthing space for two vessels. It will also have offices of 32 departments.

ESR announced partnership with Future Group to develop two logistics parks with an investment of ₹300 crore. To be located at Nagpur and Gurugram, the logistics parks will span 75 acres with a potential development of around 1.3 million sq. ft. It is estimated that this investment shall be made to develop two state-of-the-art industrial and warehousing parks to service northern and central regions. The logistics parks will be jointly developed by Future Group’s Future Market Networks and ESR, with the latter as the majority partner. “This partnership will strengthen ESR’s presence in India to six cities and we expect this strategic alliance to expand further in several newer geographies in the next one to two years,” said Abhijit Malkani, Country Head, ESR India. He added that, in association with CONCOR Dadri, it is the commitment of CMA CGM Logistics Park Dadri to work out all modalities and deliver efficient services to its customers in every possible way.

CMA CGM Logistics Park Dadri has started planning and running dedicated block train services, with all-export containers booked by its CFS, from ICD Dadri to Mundra in association with CONCOR Dadri. Capt. V. M. Bawa, CEO, CMA CGM Logistics Park Dadri, informs, “The services would be on regular/weekly basis and this initiative will benefit the export trade at ICD Dadri in offering direct train services to Mundra with average transit time of approx. 72 hours.” The first dedicated block train service, comprising 45 FEUs to Mundra, was flagged off on the night of September 2, 2019 from ICD Dadri by Capt. Bawa in the presence of CONCOR staff and the Station Superintendent of Dadri station. The second dedicated block train from ICD Dadri departed soon after, on September 4 for Mundra with another 45 FEUs booked by the CFS.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) is planning to add space to its export dock to expand the cargo handling capacity of the Chennai airport. The dock is an automated facility where trucks unload export consignments in the cargo complex. This decision is expected to speed up the handling of cargo as AAI has been getting complaints of trucks queuing up at night at the export dock. Adding space to the export dock can improve infrastructure, an area where the Chennai airport is losing out to other airports. Chennai airport is also suffering a decline in cargo demand as per global slowdown. AAI data show that international freight movement in Chennai declined by 13.2 per cent and domestic by 20.3 per cent in April to July 2019, compared to the same period last year, making it the lowest when compared to major airports, except Kolkata.

The Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) has appointed Sunil Arora of Delta Air Freight as the President of ACAAI for 2019-2020. Arora, who held the post of Vice President earlier, takes over from TA Varghese of Aroscan Cargo Trade. Afzal Malbarwala of Galaxy Freight, who previously served as Secretary General, has now been appointed as the Vice President of ACAAI. CK Govil of Activair Airfreight India and Anil Vazirani of Robinsons Cargo & Logistics have taken over as Secretary General and Treasurer, respectively. The announcements were made during the 49th annual general meeting in Mumbai. The ACAAI Annual Convention 2019 will be held from November 21-24 at The Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa, Phuket.

M Raja Kishore, Airport Director, Rajahmundry Airport, states that cargo services will commence from the airport soon. In a stakeholders meeting, it was identified that agro, marine, fish, soft crab and pharmacy shrimp would be the main cargo. The committee will submit a report to the central government for clearance relating to operation of cargo services and the operations will be commenced shortly. Kishore further says, “There were abundant opportunities for cargo services from the airport as rice, vegetables, fruits, coconuts, aqua, fish and coir can be transported across the world from this airport and it is centrally located between Amaravati and Visakhapatnam.”

Blue Dart Express announced its General Price Increase (GPI), effective January 1, 2020. The average shipment price increase will be 9.8 per cent as compared to 2019, dependant on the shipping profile. The price increase will apply to all customers signed up until August 31, 2019, those signing up between September 1– 30, 2019 will continue to enjoy benefits at the existing rates, till December 31, 2020. A GPI free period of September 1-30, 2019 for new customers also announced first time ever. This is generally applicable to sign ups between October to December of the previous year. Customers signing up from October 1 to December 31, 2019 will not be impacted by the price increase. Commenting on the announcement, Balfour Manuel, Managing Director, Blue Dart, said, “The price adjustment will allow us to further enhance our capabilities and enable us to delight our customers by providing them high quality solutions and services, best-in-class technology and innovative products”. Ketan Kulkarni, CMO & Head – Business Development, Blue Dart, adds, “Blue Dart has made strategic investments ahead of the curve to remain agile and adaptive in a dynamic environment. These include expanding our reach, improving transit times, network optimisation, infrastructure and technology solutions and focusing on emerging markets, SMEs and key sectors”. Blue Dart adjusts its prices annually, considering inflation, currency dynamics, fuel cost fluctuations and other rising regulatory and mandatory costs, such as expenses related to compliance for the workforce with enhanced security regulations across the large number of locations its services.