Saturday, 4 April 2015

Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20


The new five year Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-20 provides a framework for increasing exports of goods and services as well as generation of employment and increasing value addition in the country. The focus of the new policy is to support both the manufacturing and services sectors, with emphasis on 'make in India' and improving the 'ease of doing business'.

        I.            Two new schemes : MEIS & SEIS

1)      FTP introduces only two new schemes, in place of a plethora of schemes earlier :

                                                        i.            Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)

                                                      ii.            Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS)

2)      For rewards under MEIS, the countries have been categorized  into 3 groups, whereas the rates of rewards under MEIS range from 2% to 5%.

3)      Under SEIS the selected services would be rewarded at the rates of 3% and 5%.

4)      Promotion of domestic capital goods manufacturing industry

Ø  Specific export obligation has been reduced to 75% of normal export obligation under EPCG scheme to nudge procurement of capital goods from indigenous manufacturers.

5)      Measures have been taken to boost exports of defense and hi-tech items.

6)      e-commerce exports of handloom products, books/periodicals, leather footwear, toys and customized fashion garments through courier or foreign post office would also be able to get benefit of MEIS (for value upto INR 25,000)

7)      These measures would not only capitalize on India's strength in these areas and increase exports but provide employment.

 II.        SEZs

1)      Benefits of both the reward schemes (MEIS & SEIS) will be extended to unites located in SEZs.

2)      This measure will give a new impetus to development and growth of SEZs in the country.

III.        Trade facilitation & ease of doing business

1)      One of the major focus areas of new FTP.

2)      The major objective of new FTP is to move towards paperless working in 24x7 environment.

3)      The govt. has reduced the number of mandatory documents required for exports and imports to 3, which is comparable with international benchmarks.

4)      A facility has been created to upload documents in exporter/importer profile and the exporters will not be required to submit documents repeatedly.

5)      Attention has been paid to

                                i.            Simplification of various 'Aayat Niryat' forms

                              ii.            bringing in clarity in different provisions

                            iii.            removing ambiguities

                             iv.            enhancing electronic governance

6)      Approved Exporter System : Manufacturers will now be enabled to self certify their manufactured goods in phases.

    IV.            Steps taken for encouraging manufacturing and exports under 100% EOU/EHTP/STPI/BTP schemes :

1)      fast track clearance facility for these units

2)      permitting them to share infrastructure facilities

3)      permitting inter unit transfer of goods and services

4)      permitting them to set up warehouses near the port of export

5)      use duty free equipment for training purposes.

Following are the highlights of the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 : 

1)      Increase exports to USD 900 billion by 2019-20, from USD 466 billion in 2013-14

2)      Raise India's share in world exports from 2 percent to 3.5 percent

3)      Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) and Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) launched

4)      Higher level of rewards under MEIS for export items with High domestic content and value addition

5)      Chapter-3 incentives extended to units located in SEZs

6)      Export obligation under EPCG scheme reduced to 75% to Promote domestic capital goods manufacturing

7)      FTP to be aligned to Make in India, Digital India and Skills India initiatives.

8)      Duty credit scrips made freely transferable and usable For payment of custom duty, excise duty and service tax.

9)      Export promotion mission to take on board state Governments

10)  Unlike annual reviews, FTP will be reviewed after two-and-Half years

11)  Higher level of support for export of defense, farm Produce and eco-friendly products. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No comments:

Post a Comment