Port Community System
Presentation by
Gave Sarkari
Managing Director
Vice President
Maritime Agenda 2020 which is a vision document for the next 10 years,
doubles port capacities by 2020,
what more will need to be embraced side by side, and not in bits and pieces,
is the need of an Integrated Port community system
that encompasses all related parties, be it the Ministry, the ports, the customs, the
Excise, the CISF, the shipping lines, the agents, the forwarders, the shippers, the
consignees, the clearings agents, the CFS, the terminals, the transporters, the FTWZs/
DGFT, Banks, etc etc.
Only then we will truly in its real sense get on to exercising the Mantra of
“Ease of Doing Business in India” & be transparent as well.
This will be the true liberator of trade from the shackles of existing acts, regulations,
and processes, many of whom were incorporated almost 60 years ago or more. Today
piece meal half baked measures are being introduced, whereby a paper replaced by an
Email, is considered a DIGITIZATION success.
It is no rocket science, and is being used by most major ports globally.
The absolute need for a PORT COMMUNITY SYTEM has been raised at various forums by
the trade and by the shipping community.
But still a lot of work still needs to be done to have a versatile robust PCS in India.
Port Community System
A
SINGLE WINDOW CONCEPT
Covering information flow
between all related parties
Right from Cargo booking/ Customs Clearance /
transportation / advance list / load-list / Bay plan /
Manifest / Invoicing / Funding/ drawbacks
To move
from a platform where one needs to
“Seek information”
to a platform providing “Ready information”
in a transparent manner
Port Users today!
SHIPPING AGENT
CUSTOMS /
PREVENTIVE / OTHER
GOVT. AUTHORITIES
CHA/
FORWARDERS
IMPORTERS/
EXPORTERS
PORT
AUTHORITY
CARRIER
BANKS
Stuck in Complex web
of flow of information
Mountains of paper
Filing Infinity no. of
documents with often
repeated data…..
Errors
TERMINAL
TRANSPORTERS
DEPOTS /
CFS/FTWZs
Clearance Delays
All Port Community Members
at the same “VIRTUAL TABLE”
A Self Providing, Information Platform
FREIGHT
FORWARDER
SHIPPING AGENT
CHA
PORT
AUTHORITY
CUSTOMS /
PREVENTIVE / OTHER
GOVT. AUTHORITIES
BANKS
CARRIER
IMPORTERS/
EXPORTERS
TRANSPORTERS
CFS / TERMINAL
It is no rocket science, and is being used by most major ports globally
BARCELONA
And Many More…..
Major Advantage of PCS for all these Global Ports:
Benefits of PCS for Indian Ports
Smooth flow of Electronic Data
Reduce Transaction time
Reduce inefficiencies in processes
Move to Paperless regime
PCS in India: There but still in bits & pieces
•
PCS in its existing form has automated very few of the overall transactions and there is an
opportunity to do substantially more.
•
In the current state only few stake holders namely Ports, Shipping Lines, Customs, CONCOR and
CFS Operators are able to use this platform for EDI and that too for a limited set of information.
•
This EDI is mostly one way and not multidirectional. Various other stake holders like, banks,
RBI, Shippers, Trade associations, Export Promotion councils, Clearing Agents, Shipping Lines,
Consolidation Agencies, surveyors, transporters, Inspection Agencies, other Govt Bodies are not
part of this platform.
•
The scope of system to be made much larger to include all the above stake holders in the trade
and under a Single Cargo Community System.
PCS in India: A versatile, robust platform needed
The platform be made so versatile and robust that it should facilitate multidirectional
Data Interchange between all the stake holders in the entire trade, the platform should
have following features:
1.
A self sustaining model to fund its development, maintenance and timely enhancement to keep up
with trade dynamics
2.
All entities to submit the data to a Central Repository and any entity in the Eco System should be
able pull the data from this platform for its requirement
3.
Data should be available on reciprocal basis, it has to be multidirectional, currently it only permits
one way traffic that too with very limited entities
4.
A time bound plan to Identify and dematerialise all the paper transactions between all the entities
involved in trade
5.
Joint Ownership of all Stake Holders to ensure participation
6.
Participation of all Govt Bodies/Depts/organisations under 4 ministries of Shipping, Finance,
Commerce and Civil Aviation
PCS can be improvised further
Issues
Suggestions
The differences of standards/format used during Message formats to be standardized
the document exchange between some of the
stakeholders make the electronic document
exchange of little use to the partner.
There is no centralized system that can do the
conversion from one standard format to another
and make the information available to all the
players involved.
PCS will take care of the conversion of
the message formats
It is quite difficult to locate a container in many
Ports’ CFS since no yard plan is followed
currently and if there is any, it’s not updated
and conveyed to Agent/CHA when the
containers are shifted from the original location
to another.
Ports have to maintain the Yard Plan
and should be updated in real time
PCS can be improvised further
Issues
Suggestions
Stakeholders still need to submit paper
documents in many counters, though the
functions of the counter is automated, as there
is no link between various existing systems
implemented in the Ports.
Ports internal systems should be
connected with all the other
departments of the Port.
The IGM hard copies are still submitted by
Shipping Agent in most of the ports since the
IGM (EDI message)from Shipping Agent or
Customs is not used by the port. Port Systems
either don’t have an option to do import the IGM
message or it can’t interpret the messages.
Once PCS is in place, IGM can be
received by the Port from PCS or Port
can directly receive the IGM from the
Customs (In case if there is
no integration between customs and
Port Community System)
To issue the LEO, Custom officer checks all the
applications, then goes back to office and
enters the details onto the system. Instead, he
can use any mobile device to issue LEO. The
dwell time can be reduced substantially by this.
Customs will have to adapt to more
efficient time-saving means
PCS can be improvised further
Issues
Suggestions
Collection of DO is partly manual. CHA has to
go to different Shipping Agents for getting DOs
for different importers the CHA represents
DO can be received on-line as being
followed by few lines.
Many Shipping lines/ Agents doesn’t have
message translators to translate the messages to
the format acceptable to customs.
PCS should have the message
translator
The Port systems cannot provide information
about the cargo once it leaves its boundaries. i.e.
when the cargo is transported out by rails
and trucks.
Railway and ICD also
included in PCS
Gate-officer does not have access
to the necessary information (like Bill of Entry).
All gates of the Ports should be well
connected with the Ports internal
system
Import and Export Document goes through lot
of small changes / amendments. Currently it is
not easy for the stakeholders to carry out the
amendments.
Amendments can be done through
On-line if customs accepts
PCS can be improvised further
Issues
Suggestions
Shipping Agent and other stakeholders need to
Web services can be used to find out
directly enquire with the Port regarding Vessel
Vessel Arrival /Departure details
Arrival/ Departure information and other vessel,
cargo and container movement status as there
is no real time status update or checking option
available in the current system
Currently, there is no reminder or notification
mechanism in place if there is a delay in
processing or approval.
Port Community System cansend a
reminder to the recipient who is not
approving for long time.
Gate in and gate out in the port is quite difficult
and time consuming due to the manual
verification of the document in the gate. Good
amount of the time will be saved by
streamlining the gate in/out passes issuance
and verification of the passes at the gate.
Port’s Gate should have the PC and is
connected with the Port’s Internal
System
PCS can be improvised further
Issues
Suggestions
Bills / Invoices should be standardized into a
common international format across the ports
although the tariffs by different ports may be
different
PCS Finance related messages are
standardized
Port can push bills files to banks and banks send
EDI response back. But Port must send payment
details, for example, for which items are these
bills for. PCS should reconcile the details.
Should be under PCS scope
Bay plan/yard plan report should be graphical
and published on-line.
Can be done in PCS as many Global
PCS have the option
There should some provision to change type of
the Vessel between Foreign and Coastal during
the voyage
Option in PCS
Rail operators are using their own train codes
while JNPT is using their own train codes and
messages exchange between them cannot be
achieved.
Can be included in PCS
THANK YOU