New delhi, Dec. 26 -- Upcoming customs duty reforms will attempt to help cargo ships turn around faster at Indian ports and further streamline the core tariff rate structure, two persons familiar with the development said, making cross-border trade simpler, quicker and cheaper. The FY27 Union budget's overall customs strategy will also support businesses diversifying their export markets to limit the impact of global trade uncertainties feeding into domestic manufacturing, they said. Hectic pre-budget discussions are on in the government about simplifying customs procedures, increasing last-mile connectivity to ports, and automating more processes so that consignments can leave ports faster. This is a major area of customs reform expected in the Union budget, the first the two persons cited above said. Currently, the average turnaround time for a ship at an Indian port is 48 hours, against less than half a day at top trading hubs like Hong Kong. The idea in the Indian government is to narrow this gap as much as possible, the person cited above said. Ships idling at ports raises costs for shipping lines, which translates into shipment delays and higher transport costs. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said at the HT Leadership Summit 2025 earlier this month that reforming India's customs duty regime by lowering rates on selected goods, increasing transparency, and reducing officials' discretion will be the next major economic reform push. As per official data, India has significantly improved its average turnaround time for vessels from about 93 hours in 2013-14 to about two days in 2023-24 with Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Nhava Sheva, Navi Mumbai leading the pack with 26 hours. The improvement in Jawaharlal Nehru Port's performance in post-covid years was noted in a World Bank report in September on container port performance. "The port's CPPI values were 66 (2020), 62 (2021), 35 (2022), 48 (2023), and 100 (2024). This upward trend reflects the addition of terminal capacity and process reforms that have reduced turnaround and dwell times," noted the report, put together with S&P Global Market Intelligence. CPPI, short for container port performance index, measures time performance compared to the global average with zero set at the average. The Navi Mumbai port was ranked 10th among global ports by pace of improvement in performance between 2020 and 2024. The government is also exploring the possibility of reducing the number of core tariff rates further down from eight now, to the extent possible, after two rounds of reduction in the February 2023 and February 2025 budgets meant to phase out 14 tariff rates. India now has eight core tariff rates: zero, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 50% and 70%, barring outliers such as wine and alcohol that are levied higher duties. Free trade deals offer concessions on these rates. Calibration of customs duty rates on specified goods are also being examined to align the rates with India's industrial goals of keeping imported raw material and machinery costs low and for providing sufficient tariff protection for domestic production of intermediate-to-final goods as the country seeks to achieve backward integration in manufacturing. However, trade strategy will play a key role in the customs reform drive. One of the options on the table is to further lower the number of tariffs rates to converge with developed country practices of having a limited number of rates or rate bands, but that will be worked out in conjunction with India's trade diversification strategy. Upfront, across-the-board concessions on customs duty structure could make India's offers to potential trade partners less appealing, said the second person....