Volume : 8, Issue : 3, March - 2019

Analysis of "Sea Cargo Manifest & Transhipment Regulations 2018" on Ease of Doing business in India

Kartik Mahajan

Abstract :

Ease of doing business (EODB) ranking today, more than ever is considered the ultimate parameter for gauging the environment for business growth in a country. In the EODB index, ‘higher rankings‘ (a lower numerical value) indicate better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights. Each country is trying its best to be among the top rankers in the list, conclusively proving it to be favoured destination for investments. India improved its ranking from 139 in 2010 to 100 in 2017 and 􀃶nally to 77 in 2018. India‘s cost of export and import (EXIM) currently constitutes 14 to 18 percent of the GDP, compared to 9 percent in USA, 10 percent in Europe and 11 percent in Japan. . India is working towards inging this cost under 10 percent. Another key area where Government of India wants to improve its rankings is the parameter of “Ease of trading across borders” under EODB. Ease of trading across borders primarily records the time and cost related to the logistical process of exporting and importing goods. It measures the three sets of processes within the overall process, the 3 processes namely Documentary compliance, Border compliance and Domestic transportation. In an attempt to ing down the cost of trade and catalysing the ease of EXIM trade in India, Government has implemented various policies in the recent years namely Direct port delivery, Direct port entry and Relaxation of Cabotage law. The policies have received a mixed response from the stakeholders owning to bottlenecks in implementation and are still in phase of getting streamlined. The latest step towards create ease of business is a regulatory change called “Sea Cargo Manifest & Transhipment Regulations 2018”. The regulation is “primarily aimed at inging down the cargo dwell time at the port and quicken the vessel turnaround through advance 􀃶ling of Import General Manifest (IGM) and Export General Manifest (EGM). This is expected to ing down total logistics cost associated with EXIM. All this is happening at a junction where Indian logistics is being re-engineered with use of latest technology including Port community system, IoT, Blockchain to name few. Through this paper I would like to analyse the role that the “Sea Cargo Manifest & Transhipment Regulations 2018” in improving the Ease of Doing Business in India.