India betters UN commerce facilitation survey rating

India has considerably improved its rating on a commerce facilitation survey performed by the United Nations for a complete of 143 nations, scoring 90.32 per cent within the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (UNESCAP) newest Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation, and bettering from 78.49 per cent in 2019.
In its analysis of 143 economies, the Survey for 2021 has identified India’s enchancment within the scores on all 5 key indicators — transparency, formalities, institutional association and cooperation, paperless commerce and cross-border paperless commerce.
Under the transparency indicator, India scored 100 per cent in 2021, up from 93.33 per cent in 2019. The rating for ‘paperless trade’ improved to 96.3 per cent from 81.48 per cent, whereas that for institutional association and cooperation indicator rose to 88.89 per cent from 66.67 per cent.

The survey is performed each two years by UNESCAP and consists of an evaluation of 58 commerce facilitation measures coated by the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement.
“The CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) 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,” in line with the Finance Ministry.