Industry in Puducherry welcomed the introduction of the Customs Electronic Data Intercharge (EDI) facility here, in the hope that it will improve the health of businesses.
At a programme organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Puducherry, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Chennai, Customs and Central Excise Department, Tiruchirapalli, on Thursday, K.C. Johny, Commissioner of Customs, Tiruchirapalli, formally inaugurated the EDI system which facilitates paperless trade.
Around 100 people from industry, trade, and entrepreneurs, Customs House agents, executives from imports and exports unit in and around Puducherry participated in the programme, which included a session on the analysis of the new foreign trade policy.
In his address, S. Narasimhan, Chairman, CII Puducherry State Council, said the 2015-16 Puducherry Budget is a boost to industry.
He said the EDI facility is vital in Puducherry as a large number of members of the CII were Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and were involved in considerable volume of exports and imports. He welcomed campaigns like Make in India, Digital India and Skills India, which aimed to improve the ease of doing business, and said the new foreign trade policy is a ‘visionary policy’.
Mr. Johny and M. Tamizh Vendhan, Deputy Commissioner of Customs, spoke about the advantages of implementing the EDI facility. They said how the processes had become clearer, and retrieval of information from the database had become easier.
Training sessions
There would be training sessions and orientation programmes for businesses to ease them into the new system. R. Sampath Kumar, Assistant Director General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, asked businesses to focus on ‘quality standards and produce zero defect products’, and saying ‘Brand India’ must be synonymous with quality.
The programme was also attended by S. Vinodh, Associate Director, BMR & Associates LLP, Chennai, and Srikanth Sivaram, Vice Chairman, CII Puducherry State Council.