6-Aug-2017: Govt formulates action plan with timelines for TFA implementation
The government has formulated a detailed action plan with timelines for smooth implementation of WTOs trade facilitation agreement (TFA). Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) including India has ratified TFA, which aims at easing customs procedures, expediting movement, release and clearance of consignments. For the implementation of the pact, the government has last year set up Cabinet Secretary-headed National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF).
Action plan: Implementation of the plan, which also includes suggestions of the private sector, have been divided into short term (0-6 months), medium term (6-18 months) and long term (18-36 months). The short term action plan includes augmentation of storage infrastructure for perishable goods and clearance of such goods within 12 hours of landing for import and 8 hours for export. The plan for mid-term includes updation of all regulatory information available on the internet on a single window portal; to put in place adequate bio-security measures for livestock imports and publication of all fees on a single window website.
Cargo release time, both for export and import purposes, would also be reduced within a time period. For imports, sea and air cargo release time would be reduced to three and two days respectively. Similarly, for exports, sea cargo release time would be brought down to two days and air cargo the same day.
The CBEC and the commerce ministry would also work on streamlining policy for e-commerce which includes cutting documentation requirements and providing single submissions. Further, as part of the action plan, legislative changes have been proposed in the Customs Act 1962 for processing of documents among other things. The agencies and ministries involved in the implementation process includes Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), Directorate General of Foreign Trade and Animal & Plant Quarantine, textiles and environment ministries.
20-Jul-2017: Government releases National Trade Facilitation Action Plan.
The Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley said that the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan (NTFAP) aims to align border procedures with international best practices and improve Ease of Doing Business. He said that it would not only ensure compliance with the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) but would also give impetus to trade facilitation. He also said that this Action Plan gives a time bound map, not only for implementing TFA, but also for India’s initiatives for trade facilitation and Ease of doing Business which goes beyond TFA.
Earlier, under Article 23.2 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), a National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF) headed by the Cabinet Secretary was constituted. The NCTF comprises of stakeholders from the Government and the private sectors including trade community. The NCTF has adopted 76 point National Trade Facilitation Action Plan (NTFAP) which is a reflection of the Government’s commitment to implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
The National Action Plan aims to transform cross border clearance ecosystem through efficient, transparent, risk based, coordinated, digital, seamless and technology driven procedures which are supported by state-of-the-art sea ports, airports and land borders.
The objectives to be achieved by National Action Plan are improvement in ease of doing business by reduction in cargo release time and cost, move towards paperless regulatory environment, transparent and predictable legal regime and improved investment climate through better infrastructure.
The Action Plan lists out specific activities which would be carried out by all regulatory agencies like Customs, FSSAI, Drug Controller, Plant Quarantine, DGFT etc. in time bound manner. The Co-ordination among all the stakeholders is the key to achieve the objective of Trade facilitation.
The Action Plan not only covers the activities coming under the TFA but they go beyond the ambit of TFA per se, which have been defined as TFA Plus category. The Action Plan covers many activities in the areas of infrastructure augmentation, particularly the road and rail infrastructures leading to ports and the infrastructure within ports, airports, ICDs, Land Customs stations that cuts across all stakeholders for which various ministries like Shipping, Civil Aviation, Railways, Road transport and Highways, Home Affairs, Finance, Commerce etc. have been assigned specified targets.
All actions covered under the plan have been categorized by prioritizing the activities into short term, midterm and long term. The National Plan would be monitored by the Steering Committee (the operational arm of the NCTF) chaired by the Revenue Secretary and the Commerce Secretary. The plan would be reviewed by the Cabinet Secretary.
Dr Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary General, WCO mentioned about WCO working with G-20 on illicit financial flows. He sought Indian support for the study on illicit financial flows and plugging of trade based money laundering. He also spoke about how WCO is helping many countries in implementation of TFA through their Mercator Programme. He specifically appreciated TFA plus category in India’s Action Plan.
6-Mar-2017: Trade Mark Rules 2017
The Trade Mark Rules, 2017 have been notified and have come into effect from 06th March, 2017. These Rules, which replace the erstwhile Trade Mark Rules 2002, will streamline and simplify the processing of Trade Mark applications.
Some salient features of the revamped Rules are as follows:
- Number of Trade Mark (TM) Forms have been reduced from 74 to 8.
- To promote e-filing of TM applications, the fee for online filing has been kept at 10% lower than that for physical filing.
- Based on stakeholders feedback, the fees for Individuals, Start-ups and Small Enterprises have been reduced from that proposed in the draft Rules – i.e. only Rs 4,500 as against Rs 8,000 for e-filing of TM applications proposed at the draft stage.
- Modalities for determination of well-known trademarks have been laid out for the first time.
- The provisions relating to expedited processing of an application for registration of a trade mark have been extended right up to registration stage (hitherto, it was only upto examination stage).
- Over all fees have been rationalized by reducing the number of entries in Schedule I from 88 to just 23.
- Modalities for service of documents from applicants to the Registry and vice-versa through electronic means have been introduced to expedite the process; e-mail has been made an essential part of address for service to be provided by the applicant or any party to the proceedings so that the office communication may be sent through email.
- Hearing through video conferencing has been introduced.
- Number of adjournments in opposition proceedings has been restricted to a maximum of two by each party, which will help dispose-off matters in time.
- Procedures relating to registration as Registered User of trademarks have also been simplified.
It may be recalled that the examination time for a TM application has already been brought down from 13 months to just 1 month in January 2017; this is despite a stupendous 35% jump in TM filings in 2015-16 vis a vis the previous year. The new Rules should give a boost to the Intellectual Property Regime in India.