Technical Glitch
Issue that led to double counting on Nov imports still not resolved, says govt
This story was originally published at 21:31 IST on 9 January 2025
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--Govt: Reviewed Nov trade data on unusual surge in precious metal imports
--Govt: Imports double-counted on migration of data transmission mechanism
--Govt: Data transmission mechanism migration still incomplete on tech glitch
--CONTEXT: Govt lowered Nov goods imports by $6 bln, gold imports by $5
--Govt: Formed panel to create robust mechanism to publish consistent data
NEW DELHI – The issue that led to double counting of imports, which overstated the November goods import figure by $6 billion, has still not been resolved, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Thursday.
The government had double-counted imports of gold and silver in November due to a technical glitch during the migration of data transmission mechanism from the Department of Commerce's SEZ Online system to Indian Customs Electronic Data Interchange Gateway, or ICEGATE.
On Wednesday, the government revised the merchandise trade data for November, lowering the gold import figure for the month by $5 billion and the goods import print by $6 billion. The commerce ministry's Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics lowered the November gold import figure to $9.84 billion from $14.86 billion estimated by the commerce ministry earlier.
The goods import figure was lowered to $63.86 billion from the original estimate of $69.95 billion. The November trade deficit is now $31.83 billion compared with the original estimate of $37.84 billion, released on Dec. 16.
The Apr-Nov gold import figure was lowered by $11.69 billion to $37.39 billion, while the overall merchandise imports print for the first eight months of 2024-25 (Apr-Mar) was changed to $472.53 billion, lower by $14.20 billion than the previous estimate. Apart from gold, the silver import figure for November was also revised lower by $179.68 million to $476.93 million.
According to the commerce ministry, due to the migration of the data transmission mechanism from the SEZ Online system to ICEGATE, the system was calculating both imports into special economic zone and subsequent clearance into domestic tariff area as separate transactions after the migration.
Earlier, the trade data from more than 100 special economic zones was captured by SEZ Online system and data for all other non-special economic zone locations was captured by the ICEGATE system. Starting July, only the ICEGATE system was used to capture export-import data for all ports, including special economic zones.
"Owing to persistence of certain technical glitches, the migration is still not complete," the ministry said. "Both SEZ Online and ICEGATE are still capturing and transmitting mutually exclusive EXIM (export-import) data to DGCIS (Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics).
The Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics undertook the revision of the import figures, "based on data that's received late, amendments in the respective months and qualitative corrections wherever required". "The principal commodity level data, which have been uploaded recently at DGCIS Data Dissemination Portal, incorporates the first phase of reconciliations made till date."
The government has also formed a committee with stakeholders from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, and special economic zones for creation of a robust mechanism that publishes consistent data, the ministry said. End
US$1 = INR 85.85
Reported by Shubham Rana
Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj
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