As the Board of Trade meets on July 3 to discuss export promotion, free trade agreements, and new initiatives, the government's top priority should be to better serve existing exporters. It must ensure that delays in approvals, licences and other administrative processes do not hold businesses back.

That is why a recent circular issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), India's main export facilitation agency, has become a point of concern for exporters. The issue is not merely access to officials. It is whether India's export administration is becoming more responsive at a time when exporters are already dealing with weak global demand, rising protectionism, stricter non-tariff barriers and growing compliance requirements.

Exporters say they do not visit DGFT offices unless necessary. Most applications are filed online. If applications are processed within the prescribed timelines, there would be no crowds at DGFT offices. Businesses approach the agency only when licences, authorisations or amendments are delayed, software problems arise, policy provisions need clarification, or import consignments are held up because approvals have not been issued. In such situations, quick access to the officer handling the case is often the only way to prevent disruption to trade.

The concern stems from a May 11 circular stating that exporters, consultants and trade associations should preferably meet only officers of the rank of Additional Director General of Foreign Trade (ADGFT) and above.

For exporters, this risks addressing the symptom rather than the cause. Nobody wants to spend time visiting government offices if work is completed on time. As one exporter put it, people come only when delays threaten shipments and exports. Restricting access may reduce footfalls, but it does little to address the underlying reasons businesses seek meetings in the first place.

Why Access Matters

Exporters also argue that existing grievance mechanisms, including Jan Sunwai and video-conference meetings, have not been effective in resolving pending cases. They are not asking to meet senior officials routinely. Their demand is simpler: allow them to explain urgent issues to the concerned officer so that cases can be resolved quickly.

This matters because DGFT sits at the centre of India's export administration. The agency provides more than 150 online services, including Importer Exporter Codes (IEC), Advance Authorisations, EPCG licences, DFIA authorisations, RoDTEP benefits, SCOMET licences, import licences, tariff-rate quotas, export obligation management, policy relaxations and certificate amendments.

Thousands of exporters depend on these services every day to import raw materials, fulfil export orders and meet delivery schedules. Delays in approvals can disrupt production, delay shipments and even lead to cancellation of export orders. In a business environment where delivery commitments often determine future orders, administrative delays can impose costs that far exceed the paperwork involved.

The Reforms That Matter

The solution is not complicated. Trade experts have suggested a series of practical measures that would improve responsiveness without disrupting normal office functioning.

One proposal is to institutionalise a daily open-house hour at DGFT Headquarters and every Regional Authority. From 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. every working day, exporters should be able to meet the concerned officers without prior appointments. Such a system would improve accessibility, transparency and accountability while allowing routine problems to be resolved quickly.

A second reform would be automatic escalation of applications that remain pending beyond prescribed service timelines. Cases could be escalated through the DGFT portal under a clearly defined escalation ladder. A public dashboard showing pending cases would improve accountability and ensure delays are monitored at the headquarters level.

Exporters also complain that emails often go unanswered and they do not know whether communications have even been received. A basic acknowledgement-and-action system would improve confidence and provide visibility into the status of pending issues.

The Committee Bottleneck

The case for faster decision-making becomes stronger when viewed through the functioning of DGFT's key committees. Under the prescribed schedule, each Norms Committee should meet twice every month. That implies roughly 12 meetings during the January-June period. Yet information available on the DGFT website shows significant variation in compliance. While NC-6 and NC-7 held all 12 meetings, NC-1 and NC-2 held only seven meetings each, NC-3 held five, NC-4 held six, and NC-5 held only three.

The Policy Relaxation Committee, chaired by the DGFT and one of the agency's most important decision-making bodies, held only five meetings against an expected 12. The EPCG Committee held only three meetings. These committees decide policy relaxations, fixation of input-output norms, EPCG matters and other authorisation issues that directly affect exporters. If meetings do not take place regularly, approvals inevitably take longer.

Fix the Capacity Constraints

There are also operational constraints. Several DGFT Regional Authorities reportedly lack regular heads. Officers holding additional charge are often overburdened and therefore reluctant to make important decisions. Filling vacancies quickly would help speed up approvals. Regular inspections and case studies could also help assess the quality of services actually being delivered.

India's exporters already deal with Customs, GST authorities, banks, ports, shipping lines, testing laboratories and regulatory ministries. Delays at any one stage can hold up shipments and even result in the cancellation of export orders. The role of DGFT should therefore be to remove bottlenecks, not add new layers of difficulty.

Speed, Not Barriers

Ultimately, a trade facilitation agency should be judged not by how difficult it is to meet its officers, but by how quickly it resolves exporters' problems. If approvals are issued on time and pending cases are addressed promptly, exporters will have little reason to visit DGFT offices at all.

The surest way to eliminate the crowds is not to restrict access. It is to make decisions faster.