Import/Export Industry Notifications

Given the economic distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Finance Ministry unveiled an Rs. 20 Lakh Crore comprehensive package, known as the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS). This package is in aid of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector, addressing working capital needs, operational liabilities and restart business impacted due to the COVID-19 crisis. This scheme is available up to October 31st, 2020, or on reaching the threshold stipulated by the Government of India under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).

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Uncertainty looms over the export of basmati rice and tea to Iran as the Central Bank of Iran has slowed down the allocation of a currency against which Iranian traders were buying these commodities from India. Indian basmati rice exporters said they are not entering into a new contract with Iranian importers to avoid any payment-related problems.

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In a sign of troubled trade relations with China, India’s export of cotton textile products to China has seen a whopping 74% decline to touch $90 million during the April-June quarter this year. China’s share in India’s total exports of cotton textile products has also halved to 6.9% during the quarter as against 14% in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. During Q1 last year, India’s export of cotton textiles to China stood at $346 million.

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The eye of Hurricane Isaias made landfall on August 3, near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Isaias returned rather quickly from tropical storm status back to hurricane strength in the hours before coming ashore. The nearby Oak Island weather station measured a sustained wind of 76 mph, making Isaias a Category 1 hurricane. Isaias has weakened a bit and is back to a tropical storm.

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Montreal port has been plunged into another strike. The Quebec port went through a fractious five-day strike over working conditions. The Longshoremen’s Union has since tabled another strike that started and will last through to early on Friday morning. German carrier Hapag-Lloyd advises that this week’s strike will affect only Termont Terminal. MGT Terminals will continue to work normally.

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The country's largest container handling port, JNPT, expects imports to get back to normal from the end of this month while exports have already picked up, seeing an increase in the shipments last month. The port has reported a 19 per cent spike in overall traffic to 4.07 million tonnes in July over June. The container traffic rose to 3,44,316 twenty-foot equivalent units during the same period, registering a growth of 19 per cent over June 2019.

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Given that 22 firms, both Indian and local, have applied to produce under its production-linked-incentive (PLI) scheme. They will produce goods worth Rs 11.5 lakh crore over five years, of which Rs. 7 lakh crore will be exported. It is not surprising the government is looking to see if this can be replicated across sectors. Indeed, one such scheme has already been notified to boost domestic production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API)

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The Directorate of Cashew Research (DCR) at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka has developed the ‘Cashew India’ app for farmers and other stakeholders of cashew in India. Available in 11 languages, the app can be downloaded from Google Play Store.

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It has been over three years since the introduction of GST, and it’s been a roller coaster ride for all the stakeholders. There continue to be several areas of inconsistency between the GST law and the GST portal. To name a few, GSTN portal does not have a functionality to link multiple invoices with a single credit note, non-availability of date of filing of the GST returns by the vendor and more. However, GST policymakers have been very proactive in taking cognizance of the hardships faced by the industry and are committed to bringing about requisite amendments from time to time.

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