The pharma exporters in the country, who are burdened with a string of transaction costs under different heads, have demanded to the union commerce ministry to withdraw transaction costs like war surcharge, scanning charges, fuel surcharge, handling charges, changing currency adjustment charges, port congestion charges, etc which have literally been strangulating the pharma exporters for quite some time now.

In a submission made to the task force on transaction costs, constituted by the commerce ministry to identify reasons for high transaction costs in exports, IDMA's international trade sub-committee president Dinesh Modi urged the government to do away with a number of transaction costs including the war surcharge to reduce transaction cost in exports. The war surcharge of Rs. 7 per kg is being levied was introduced during the gulf war which got over for long years ago. Still the exporters are being charged, he regretted.

Exporters plead that there was no point in continuing the war surcharge as the Afghan war, on which the government introduced the surcharge, is over for a long time back. Different airlines had imposed a surcharge of Rs. 5 to 7 per kg for all the goods dispatched by air after the United States declared war on Afghanistan in October 2001 in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, marking the beginning of its war on terrorism campaign, seeking to oust the Taliban and find al- Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. After the Afghan war, the airlines continued with the war surcharge as by then the US had declared another war on Iraq in 2003 to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.

In their submission to the DGFT-headed task force, the exporters also asked the government to withdraw the scanning charges of Rs. 1.65 to 2 per kg X ray charges and Rs. 50 to 84 fuel surcharge, as a measure to reduce transaction costs. The pharma exporters have also raised their voice against the congestion charges and handling charges of Rs. 1 per kg subject to Rs. 150 per airway bill paid to the ports.

Another demand put forward by the pharma exporters to the task force is the changing currency adjustment charges. The IBPCC member shipping lines are charging currency adjustment factor which works out as high as seven to eight per cent approximately.