Mumbai, May 22 (IANS): The 22nd convention of the Federation of Freight Forwarders' Associations in India (FFFAI), the oldest and the apex body of custom brokers and freight forwarders, was held here on Friday.

The three-day event, taking place in the city after 14 years, was inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The event by the FFFAI, that controls 90 percent of India's international logistics trade, is considered to be the most important event in the industry, with widest participation from the stakeholders in the export-import (EXIM) trade.

Taking part on panel discussion, experts emphasised that even as logistics players were looking forward to the execution of goods and services tax (GST) at the earliest, they feel some gaps need to be filled before it was rolled out nationwide.

"Seamless flow of credit is the biggest factor. Once GST is implemented, credit flow will be benefited. The players will also have to build more and large warehouses which will add to the capacity and create more businesses," said Rajiv Kapoor, Commissioner, Service Tax.

Shantanu Bhadkamkar, chairman of International Federation of Customs Brokers Association (IFCBA), said: "Make in India is at centre-stage amongst all policies defined by the government... All stakeholders should come together on one platform to make the initiative a fool-proof one."

Guruprasad Mohapatra, Joint Secretary of the commerce ministry, said: "Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries are important trade partners of India. The bilateral trade between India and CIS region has increased from $8,346.15 million in 2010-11 to $11,054.02 million in 2014-15.