Shankar Shinde, Chairman of Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) conveyed his heartfelt thanks to his 28-membered association and over 6500 members of FFFAI from across the country for their undeterred support for 60 years.
He also paid his gratitude to other trade associations, chambers of commerce, logistics industry stakeholders, Customs Authority and different Ministries of the Government of India for their kind support to FFFAI
The Federation will organise the Diamond Jubilee celebration programme early 2023.
Speaking on the occasion in presence of other OBs and EC members attending the event from across the country Shinde said that FFFAI is now well recognised by the government of India as well as the society at large as a vital entity of the end-to-end logistics/supply chain industry. “Our collective wisdom, hard work and strong organisational strength of FFFAI supported by 28 Member Associations from across India have been the key forces behind the recognition through various initiatives, policy announcements, and of late, by the National Logistics Policy announced by the Government of India,” he said.
Shinde further pointed out that in pursuance of its aims and objectives, the FFFAI plays a constructive role in maintaining a constant rapport with the Customs, Port Trusts, Airport Authorities, Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), Central Warehousing Corporation, Central Excise, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), etc. to make its own contribution in the formulation of Policy and administrative measures and simplification of various procedures. For this constructive role, the Federation has been accorded official recognition and is represented on several official, semi-official forums of various central ministries like Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Civil Aviation and other Trade Bodies.
Being a national apex body of Custom Brokers, FFFAI is being invited by the Ministry of Finance to give a presentation on the Union pre-budget for formulating the policy structure in direct and indirect tax. FFFAI comments are invited for the SCOPE Session, CCG meeting held by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Directorate General of Export Promotion. FFFAI is the only logistic association to be part of the National Committee on Trade Facilitation which is chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.
FFFAI was entrusted with the execution of INSTC Project by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, and TIR Convention project through the Ministry of External Affairs which was very successful.
FFFAI launched its own training and education wing in the name of Indian Institute of Freight Forwarders (IIFF) on 7th January, 2005 by the hands of Mr. Issa Baluch – President of FIATA and P. K. Srivastava – then CMD of Shipping Corporation of India. IIFF is the only institute in SAARC region to conduct a Diploma course in Freight Forwarding which is approved by FIATA.
Shinde highly appreciated the recent initiatives of the Government of India viz CBLMS, ‘PM Gati Shakti’, ‘LEADS Report’, LPPT, ‘Faceless Assessment’, ‘Turant Customs’, ‘SWIFT’, ‘DPD’, AEO, etc aiming towards fast cargo clearance, Ease of Doing Business and improvement of Logistics Performance Index of the country as per world standard.
Sharing details on the Diamond Jubilee celebration of the Association the FFFAI Chairman informed the event will be held during early 2023. Detailed programmes would be intimated very soon, which would be a fascinating one. “On behalf of the Office Bearers and Executive Members of FFFAI I appeal to all FFFAI members to make serious efforts to make the Diamond Jubilee a historic event and FFFAI a force to be reckoned with. I also appeal to all to further strengthen the Federation by increasing its membership for the larger interest of the ex-im trade as well as the logistics industry in the country,” Shinde concluded.
