Highlights of the Annual Supplement 2010-11 to the
Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14
Higher Support for Market and Product
Diversification
Support for Technological up-gradation
Benefit and flexibility to Status Holders
Stability / Continuity of the Foreign Trade
Policy
Procedural Simplification and Reduction of
Transaction Cost
EDI Initiatives
Leather Sector
Handloom sector
Textiles sector
Gems & Jewellery
sector
Handicraft Sector
Service sector
Agriculture and Plantation
Engineering and Electronics
Toys and Sports goods
Higher Support for Market and Product
Diversification
1. Additional benefit of 2% bonus, over and above
the existing benefits of 5% / 2% under Focus Product Scheme, allowed for about
135 existing products, which have suffered due to recession in exports. Major
sectors include all Handicrafts items, Silk Carpets, Toys and Sports Goods (all
of which were earlier eligible for 5% benefits); Leather Products and Leather Footwear,
Handloom Products and Engineering Items including Bicycle parts and Grinding
Media Balls (all of which were earlier eligible for 2% benefit).
2. 256 new products added under FPS (at 8 digit
level), which shall be entitled for benefits @ 2% of FOB value of exports to all
markets. Major Sectors / Product Groups are Engineering, Electronics, Rubber
& Rubber Products, Other Oil Meals, Finished Leather, Packaged Coconut
Water and Coconut Shell worked items.
3. Instant Tea and CSNL Cardinol
included for benefits under VKGUY @ 5% of FOB value of exports.
4. Nearly 300 products (at 8 digit level) from the
readymade garment sector incentivised under MLFPS for
further 6 months from October, 2010 to march, 2011 for exports to 27 EU countries.
Support for Technological up-gradation
5. Zero duty EPCG scheme, introduced in August 2009
and valid for only two years upto 31.3.2011, has been
extended by one more year till 31.3.2012. In addition, to give a boost to technological
up-gradation for additional sectors as well, the benefit of the scheme has been
expanded to cover paper & paperboard and articles thereof, ceramic
products, refractories, glass & glassware, rubber
& articles thereof, Plywood and allied products, marine products, sports
goods and toys and additional engineering products.
6. Additional Towns of Export Excellence (TEEs)
announced viz. Barmer (Rajasthan) for Handicrafts; Bhiwandi (Maharashtra) for Textiles; and Agra (Uttar
Pradesh) for Leather Products.
Benefit and flexibility to Status Holders
7. Status Holders contribute to a substantial part
of our exports. To support them to upgrade their technology, 1% Status Holder Incentive
Scheme (SHIS) introduced in August 2009 and valid for only two years upto 31.3.2011, has been extended by one more year for
2011-12 exports. In addition, to give a boost to technological up-gradation for
additional sectors as well, the benefit of the scheme has been expanded to
cover chemical & Allied products, paper, paperboard and articles thereof,
ceramic products, refractories, glass &
glassware, rubber & articles thereof, plywood and allied products,
electronics products, sports goods and toys and additional engineering
products.
8. Additional flexibility provided for
transferability of Duty Credit Scrips being issued to
Status Holders under paragraph 3.13.4 of FTP under VKGUY scheme by allowing
transfer of scrip for import of cold chain equipments to unit(s) in the Food
Park.
Stability / Continuity of the Foreign Trade Policy
9. The popular and exporter friendly Duty
Entitlement Passbook (DEPB) scheme has been extended beyond 31.12.2010 till 30.06.2011.
10. Availability of concessional Export Credit
Interest subvention of 2% for pre-shipment credit
for export sectors namely, Handloom, Handicraft, Carpet and SMEs for all export
sectors, have been allowed till 31.3.2011 in the budget 2010-11. This facility
has now been extended to a number of additional products pertaining to sectors
like Engineering, leather, textiles, Jute.
11. Advance Authorization for Annual Requirement
shall also be exempted from payment of anti-dumping & Safeguard duty in line
with the underlying principle that goods and services should be exported and
not the taxes and levies.
Procedural Simplification and Reduction of
Transaction Cost
12. Exporters shall now have the flexibility to get
a high value EPCG authorisation by filing their EPCG
application on Annual basis, without the need to file the application for
individual capital goods from time to time. It will reduce transaction time and
cost.
13. Exporters shall now have the flexibility to
Club Advance authorisation with Advance Authorisation for Annual Requirement for the purpose of
account closure.
14. To impart flexibility to exporters and to
facilitate smooth clearance of consignments, a Single customs notification for
the two variants of Advance Authorization scheme namely advance authorisation for physical exports & deemed exports
shall be issued. It will also eliminate the ambiguity in clubbing of such exports.
15. Adhoc Norms ratified
under Advance Authorisation scheme shall henceforth apply
to all cases for the same export product upto one
year not only prospectively but also retrospectively.
16. Clarification on the availability of 4% SAD
refund benefit, as given by DOR in terms of customs Notification No. 102/2007, only
to trader importers, to be also extended to manufacturers, who sell the
imported items like traders.
17. Chartered Engineer Certificate for Advance Authorisation on self declared basis,
has been dispenced with. This will reduce documentation
and the transaction cost.
EDI Initiatives
18. To reduce the transaction cost and time, the
scope and domain of EDI is endeavoured to be
continuously broadened. To remove redundancy of repeated submissions of RCMC,
an ‘e-RCMC’ initiative has been commenced. Under this, the Export Promotion
Councils would upload the RCMC data of their members on DGFT’s website only
once, thus reducing the procedural burden of repeated submissions and
associated cost and time.
19. Facility of a data preparation module for
Advance Authorization and Export Promotion Capital Good (EPCG) has been
provided on an offline mode, which would reduce the need of continuous online
interaction for long and address the connectivity and server response issues
significantly.
20. In order to provide wider choice to the users
and enlarge access for online filing, additional licenced
certifying authorities for digital signatures and banks for electronic fund
transfer (EFT) operations have been included in the gamut of EDI operations.
21. The online message exchange for Annual Advance Authorization
and Duty Free Import Authorization (DFIA) shall also be made operational with
Customs w.e.f. 1.12.2010.
Leather Sector
22. Leather sector shall be allowed re-export of
unsold imported raw hides and skins and semi-finished leather from Public bonded
warehouses, without payment of any export duty. This will facilitate the
logistics for establishment of such warehouses and easy access to raw material
for the leather sector.
23. Finished Leather export shall be entitled for
Duty Credit Scrip @ 2% under FPS.
24. Additional 2% bonus benefits over and above the
existing benefits under Focus Product Scheme would significantly benefit the
Leather Sector.
Handloom sector
25. Duty free import of specified trimmings,
embellishments etc. shall be available on Handloom made-ups exports @ 5% of FOB
value of exports.
26. Additional
2% bonus benefits over and above the existing benefits under Focus Product
Scheme would significantly benefit the Handloom Sector.
Textiles sector
27. Duty free import of specified trimmings,
embellishment etc shall be available @ 3% on exports of polyester made-ups in line
with the facility available to sectors like Textiles & Leather. It will
promote export of products such as micro cloth, which has become popular in
home textiles.
28. Readymade Garment sector granted enhanced
support under MLFPS for a period of further 6 months from October, 2010 to March,
2011 for exports to 27 EU countries.
Gems & Jewellery
sector
29. The list of items allowed for duty free import
by Gems & Jewellery sector has been expanded by
Inclusion of additional items such as Tags and labels, Security censor on
card, Staple wire, Poly bag. This will reduce the
cost of the product to some extent.
Handicraft Sector
30. The facility of duty free import of tools under
Duty Free Import scrips for Handicraft sector shall
be made operational.
31. Additional 2% bonus benefits over and above the
existing benefits under Focus Product Scheme will significantly benefit the
Handicrafts and Silk Carpets sectors.
Service sector
32. Scrips issued under
Served From India Scheme (SFIS) can now be used for
payment of duty on import of Vehicles, which are in the nature of professional
equipment.
Agriculture and Plantation
33. Instant Tea and CSNL Cardinol
included for benefits under VKGUY @ 5% of FOB value of exports.
34. Oil Meals (Cotton, rape seed, groundnut), Castor Oil derivatives, Packed Coconut Water and
Coconut Shell worked items shall be entitled for benefits @ 2% of FOB value of exports
to all markets under FPS.
Engineering and Electronics
35. Additional 2% bonus benefits over and above the
existing benefits under Focus Product Scheme will significantly benefit Bicycle
parts and Grinding Media Balls exporters.
36. Additional items of Engineering, namely, Pipes
& Tubes, Electric Generating Sets, Cast Articles of Iron & Steel, Ferro
Manganese and Ferro Silicon shall now be entitled for benefit @ 2% under FPS.
37. A number of Engineering
items namely, Machine Tools, Compressors, Iron & Steel Structures including
Transmission Towers and Scaffolding, LPG Cylinders, Ductile Tubes & Pipes shall
now be entitled for benefits @ 2% of FOB value of exports to all markets under
FPS instead of their exports to specific markets under MLFPS earlier.
38. Telecom Equipments, Colour
TVs, Audio Systems, Optical Media, Semi-conductors, Capacitors, Resistors,
PCBs, LEDs, Conductors, Desktops and Notebooks shall now be entitled for benefits
@ 2% of FOB value of exports to all markets under FPS instead of their exports
to limited market under MLFPS earlier.
Toys and Sports goods
39. Additional 2% bonus benefits over and above the
existing benefits under Focus Product Scheme will significantly benefit the
Toys and Sports Goods Sector.
40. Benefits under Zero duty EPCG and SHIS schemes
will significantly promote technological upgradation
of Toys and Sports Goods sectors.