India has significantly improved its ranking in trade facilitation due to reforms undertaken by various departments, especially customs. The country has scored 90.32 per cent in United Nation's Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific's (UNESCAP) latest Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation, a finance ministry statement said.
The survey hails this as a remarkable jump from 78.49 per cent in 2019, the statement said.India has significantly improved its ranking in trade facilitation due to reforms undertaken by various departments, especially customs. The country has scored 90.32 per cent in United Nation's Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific's (UNESCAP) latest Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation, a finance ministry statement said.#
The biennial survey includes an assessment of 58 trade facilitation measures covered by the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement.
After evaluating 143 economies, the 2021 survey has highlighted India's significant improvement in scores on all five key indicators.
Transparency improved to 100 per cent in 2021 from 93.33 per cent in 2019, formalities rose to 95.83 per cent in 2021 from 87.5 per cent in 2019 while institutional arrangement and cooperation jumped to 88.89 per cent in 2021 from 66.67 per cent in 2019.
Other parameters like paperless trade improved to 96.3 per cent in 2021 from 81.48 per cent in 2019 while cross-border paperless trade improved to 66.67 per cent in 2021 from 55.56 per cent in 2019, it said.
The survey notes that India is the best performing country when compared to South and South West Asia region (63.12 per cent) and the Asia-Pacific region (65.85 per cent), it said.
"The overall score of India has also been found to be greater than many OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries, including France, the UK, Canada, Norway, Finland etc., and the overall score is greater than the average score of EU [the European Union]. India has achieved a 100 per cent score for the transparency index and 66 per cent in the ‘Women in trade’ component," the statement said.
The 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, it said.
This has had a direct impact in terms of the improvement in the UNESCAP rankings on digital and sustainable trade facilitation, it added.
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