India's DGFT Conducting Study To Align Trade Finance With Global Best Practices

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade is evaluating best global practices in trade finance and identifying regulatory reforms to align India's future needs to propose comprehensive solutions, Joint DGFT Tirumala Venkatesh said on Friday.

Over 2.5 lakh bank realisation certificates (BRCs) have been self-generated under the revamped eBRC system, which was soft launched last November, enhancing the ease of doing business, he said.

'We are conducting a trade finance study at DGFT. The objective is to identify global best practices and benchmark, identify latest trends and technologies and future trends, identify institutional policy and regulatory reforms related to aligning the future needs of the country in the area of trade finance and propose comprehensive solutions with a road map for implementation,' Venkatesh said.

Highlighting the huge opportunity for growth in trade finance, he said a framework to capture flow of data for export credit needs to be created to provide policy makers with adequate data.

Addressing an ASSOCHAM Summit on Trade Finance, Sanjeet Singh Senior Adviser, Niti Aayog, said, 'Banks have been proactively going out on a limb to support trade.

'Niti Aayog is working towards the vision of India in 2047 and beyond. A report on export preparedness index in 2022 shows that the top 10 states account for 85 per cent of our exports and the top 10 commodity groups out of India accounts for 80 per cent of our exports'.

He said the mandate for development is not only about rapid development, it is about inclusive development, and we are reaching out to every corner of the country.

Former Chairman, State Bank of India (SBI), Rajnish Kumar, said, 'India's international trade in 1991 was about 60 billion, inclusive of services and merchandising... today we are at more than 1.5 trillion. This is a remarkable progress and the gap with China is narrowing and in the next 15-20 years we are confident that we will close this gap and find our place in international trade'.

Charan Singh, Advisor, ASSOCHAM National Council for Banking & Non-Executive Chairman, Punjab & Sind Bank, said, 'Trade finance process will become digitally driven in the days to come to streamline documentation, reduce fraud and enhance efficiency. Global trade finance market is expected to reach USD 90 billion in the next five years from the estimated USD 50 billion currently. In India, the market is still in its nascent stage at about USD 3 billion. The rupee is fast gaining prominence in balance sheets of various countries and UPI is at the forefront'.

Last December, DGFT invited proposals to choose a knowledge partner to conduct a study on trade finance.

'The objective of this engagement is to benchmark best practices in global trade finance and propose policy recommendations and innovative solutions to enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the trade finance ecosystem in India,' it stated.