‘Frequent customs IT system breakdown, GST crucial pain points’

A crucial pain point which forwarders face today is the frequent breakdown of the Customs IT System, especially on weekends and holidays, which delays Customs clearance of EXIM cargo, says C K Govil, Vice President, ACAAI. He adds, “Export shipments miss the flight connections. Import cargo doesn’t reach factories on time. Besides, the trade has to pay heavy demurrage charges to the Custodians for no fault of theirs. The Custodians, Cargo Terminal Operators, and Airlines also face technological failures in their respective domains, but the brunt has to be borne by their customers. No SLAs are defined to provide relief to Customers. On the non-technical front, the air freight forwarders and shippers suffered a major setback when the Government discontinued the Sunset clause of GST beyond September 30th, 2022, despite the industry’s multiple requests. It resulted in a levy of 18 per cent GST on airfreight against only 5 per cent on sea freight. It raised operational costs and also posed competitive problems for Indian Shippers.”