Apparel industry seeks faster clearance of import consignments from China

NEW DELHI: India's apparel industry has asked the government to expedite the clearance of import consignments from China saying the undue delay is impacting their operations and might result in further financial losses.

Apparel Export Promotion Council has written to finance ministry that “the situation at all airports and seaports at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Tuticorin and others is precarious as there is inordinate delay caused on all import consignments which are held up due to 100% open examination by Customs, who are not processing the documents for the shipments originated from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan”.

While there has been no official instruction on 100% checking of consignments coming from China, Chennai and some other ports began closer scrutiny of Chinese imports a few days ago.

“Lately, Customs Authorities at several ports are doing 100% examination of goods originating from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This has created undue delay in clearance of imported shipments of inputs which are meant for manufacture of garments for exports,” Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivel said in a letter to Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman M Ajit Kumar, adding that the move is affecting factory operations as inputs are held up at ports and exporters are in fear that they will fail to meet the delivery schedule.

“The apparel Industry is dependent on several inputs that are domestically not available or as per the buyers’ nomination has to be imported,” it said.

so far, such imports were subject to random and partial checks only, the council said and emphasised that special priority should be given to manufacturer exporters who are dependent on these imports to service their export orders.
 

Apparel industry seeks faster clearance of import consignments from China