Chief Minister Raman Singh has raised the issue of import clearance being denied on unshredded scrap at Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Raipur with the Central Government.Singh in his meeting with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely had informed that due to non clearance of import, entrepreneurs have to go to Nagpur and Vishakhapatnam, resulting in wastage of money and time.The Chhattisgarh Government is in the process of upgrading infrastructural facility to further accelerate Export-Import ( EXIM) activity from its Inland Container Depot (ICD) located at Kapa in Raipur.
The project cost of the proposed works within the ICD campus is Rs3.10 crore, officials stated.The project had been undertaken under ‘Developing Export Infrastructure & Allied Activities’ (ASIDE) scheme of the Central government .Moreover, it may be recalled that the Government is also setting up an Export Facilitation Centre in Raipur at a cost of Rs7.50 crore.The Centre is being established under Central government’s Assistance to States for Developing Export Infrastructure & Allied Activities (ASIDE) scheme.
The objective of the scheme is to involve the states in the export effort by providing assistance to the State Governments for creating appropriate infrastructure for the development and growth of exports, the ASIDE guidelines issued to the states mentioned.The States do not perceive direct gains from the growth in exports from the State. Moreover, the States do not often have adequate resources to participate in funding of infrastructure for exports. The proposed scheme, therefore, intends to establish a mechanism for seeking the involvement of the State Governments in such efforts through assistance linked to export performance, it stated.
Regarding the approval of projects and their implementation, the guidelines stated- ‘There shall be a State-level Export Promotion Committee (SlEPC) headed by the Chief Secretary of the State and consisting of the Secretaries of concerned Departments at the State level and a representative of the States cell of the Department of Commerce (DoC) and the Joint Director General of Foreign Trade posted in that State/region and the Development Commissioners of the SEZ/EPZ in the State as Members.
The SlEPC will scrutinise and approve specific projects and oversee the implementation of the Scheme.Each State/UT shall appoint/designate one of its officers as Export Commissioner who shall be the convener of SlEPC and with whom DoC will interact on the issues pertaining to ASIDE.He shall draw up five year and annual export plans for the State/UT in consultation with the trade and industry, the Export Promotion Councils and the DoC, it stated.
The SlEPC will ensure that the proposals will be location specific and selection of location and inter-se prioritising will be done by the SlEPC. For this, SlEPC will draw a list of centres to be focussed for developing export infrastructure over next 2-3 years and a shelf of projects will be kept in advance to take full advantage of this Scheme each year. The list of Centres may be drawn in consultation with Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) and other export promotion bodies.
On approval of the proposals by the SlEPC, funds shall be disbursed to the implementing agency of the project by the Nodal Agency.The State Governments are advised to put in place a system for disbursement of funds by nodal agency to Implementing Agency of the project.Before sanctioning new projects, the SlEPC will allocate funds for the likely expenditure of the ongoing projects. The SlEPC will ensure that except in exceptional cases no new project has a gestation period of more than 2 years.
For outlays under the Central component, there shall be an Empowered Committee in the Department of Commerce, headed by the Commerce Secretary and consisting of representatives from the Planning Commission and the respective ministries to consider and sanction the proposals received as per the procedure.The 20% Central component would be approved as per the delegation of powers under Financial Rules of Government of India. The 80% State component would be approved by the State Government as per the Rules of Business of the State Government, it stated.
The payments made under the scheme will be subject to audit by the Comptroller & Auditor General of India as also by other means as deemed fit by Government of India.Early this year, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had also put forward a proposal that a ‘Cargo Hub’ should be developed in Naya Raipur with a Container Depot in Chhattisgarh.He said that his Ministry will bear the entire development cost if the Chhattisgarh Government agrees to provide land for the proposed hub.
To this, Chief Minister Raman Singh who had met the Union Railway Minister in New Delhi had assured the latter that his government will provide land for the project.It may also be recalled that in November last year, the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation last year had approved construction of domestic cargo terminal in 24 airports of the country, including one at Raipur.
Significantly, in 2014-15, Raipur Railway division coming under South East Central Railway (SECR) loaded 31.85 million tonnes of freight which is highest since the formation of its Raipur division.During the past five years, Railway division has earned Rs 11.78 crore from non conventional sources, officials said.A proposed Freight train with speed of maximum 100 kms per hour will also pass through Chhattisgarh in the East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai).
The train will traverse through the States of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra as the Ministry of Railways has sanctioned implementation of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) with freight train speeds of maximum 100 Kmph.Alignment for both WDFC & EDFC has been finalized. WDFC starts from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Mumbai and passes through the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and terminate at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. The total length of the Western DFC is about 1500 Kms.This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in written reply to a question in the lok Sabha .
Notably, in the domain of Agriculture related exports, Tamarind and Maize of Bastar division is in high demand overseas as proved by exports which was to the tune of more than Rs 100 crore last year, officials stated.During the Kharif season last year, more than six lakh quintals of maize worth Rs 85 crore was exported from Bastar. Similarly 50,000 quintals of Tamarind worth Rs 20 crore was exported last year.Significantly, the maize produced by Bastar is being exported to USA, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam while tamarind is being exported to Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Dubai.In the Kharif season the same year ( 2014-15), more than six lakh quintals of maize worth Rs85 crore was exported from Bastar division. Similarly 50,000 quintals of Tamarind worth Rs20 crore was exported to other countries.