Govt Launches Contact@DGFT for Foreign Trade Issues

The Government has set up an online service facility  Contact@DGFT.
It can be used by importers and exporters to resolve all foreign trade-related issues

Benefits of Contact@DGFT

• The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which comes under the Commerce Ministry, has asked all exporters and importers to use the system — Contact@DGFT — for resolution of their matters.
• Traders can raise all matters related to the directorate or other agencies of the Centre and States through this facility, which is activated at the DGFT website.

What is Directorate General of Foreign Trade?

• The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) is the agency of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Government of India responsible for administering laws regarding foreign trade and foreign investment in India.
• It’s headquartered in Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi. 
• Under its jurisdiction, there are four Zonal Offices at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai headed by Zonal Joint Director General of Foreign Trade. 

Functions and responsibilities of DGFT:

• DGFT entrusted with the responsibility of implementing various policies regarding trade for example, Foreign Trade Policy.
• DGFT is the licensing authority for exporters, importers, and export and import business.
• DGFT can prohibit, restrict and regulate exports and imports.
• DGFT has important role to issue Notifications, Public notices, Circulars, etc.
• DGFT grant 10 digit IEC (Importer Exporter Code), which is a primary requirement to Import Export
• DGFT introduces different schemes from time to time regarding trade benefits throughout the country.
• DGFT has introduced ITC (HS CODE) schedule-1 for import items in India and Schedule-2 for Export items from India.