New Delhi, Jul 23: The government’s efforts to ease cross-border trade has borne fruits with India scoring 90.32 pc in United Nation’s biennial global survey on digital and sustainable trade facilitation.
This is a remarkable jump from 78.49 pc in 2019. Among 143 economies surveyed, India made significant improvement in the scores on all 5 key indicators.
On transparency parameter, India scored 100 pc in 2021 from 93.33 pc in 2019. In all other four indicators of formalities, institutional arrangement & cooperation, paperless trade and cross-border paperless trade it scored higher compared to the previous survey.
The United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific’s (UNESCAP) Survey is keenly awaited globally as it evidences whether or not the trade facilitation measures being taken have the desired impact and helps draw comparison amongst countries.
A higher score for a country also helps businesses in their investment decisions. The Survey noted that India is the best performing country when compared to South and South West Asia region (63.12%) and Asia Pacific region (65.85%).
“The overall score of India has also been found to be greater than many OECD countries including France, UK, Canada, Norway, Finland etc. and the overall score is greater than the average score of EU.
India has achieved a 100 pc score for the Transparency index and 66 pc in the Women in trade component,” said Finance Ministry in a statement based on the survey.
It said that the apex indirect tax body Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has been at forefront of path breaking reforms under the umbrella of ‘Turant’ Customs to usher in a Faceless, Paperless and Contactless Customs by way of a series of reforms.
“This has had a direct impact in terms of the improvement in the UNESCAP rankings on digital and sustainable trade facilitation,” the Ministry noted. (UNI)
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