e-BRC project finds top position in eASIA 2013 Award

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade’s electronic Bank Realization Certificate (e-BRC) project has bagged eAsia 2013 award in Trade Facilitation category. e-BRC project launched on June 5, 2012 created an integrated platform for receipt, processing and subsequent use of all Bank Realization related information by exporters, banks, central and state government departments. It was made mandatory with effect from August 17, 2012. Hence, now Bank Realization Certificate is must for discharge of export obligation and to claim incentives under Foreign Trade Policy. Earlier these certificates were issued by the banks manually. BRC is also used by state government departments for refund of VAT. e-BRC project allows banks to upload Foreign Exchange realisation information relating to merchandise goods exports on to the DGFT server under a secured protocol. So far 89 banks operating in India, including foreign banks and cooperative banks have uploaded more than 64 lakh e-BRCs on to the DGFT server. This initiative has reduced the cost of transaction for exporters by eliminating their interface with bank (for issuance of BRC purposes) and enhanced the productivity of banks and DGFT. At the state level, Commercial Tax Departments of Maharashtra, Delhi, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have signed MoU with DGFT for getting e-BRC data for VAT refund purposes. Many other states are in the process of signing MOUs. e-BRC project is a success story involving multiple stake holders, each with a different technology platform. This project is a good example of power of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) to improve service delivery. Top winners of other categories of eAsia 2013 awards administered by Asia Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (AFACT) are as below: • e-Business in public sector category Vietnam’s FPT Information System (FIS) project Building and deploying electronic customs clearance system (e-customs) for Vietnam Customs. • e-Business in private sector category  Taiwan’s CyberSoft Digital Services Corp. project The Best Practice of Secure Mobile Payment for Electronic Business. • Bridging digital device category Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry (III) project The APEC Digital Opportunity Center Project.