New trade policy: Sops for exports to be cut

The government is set to withdraw sops given to exporters when the new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP 2014-19) is announced later this month and instead focus on improving the infrastructure to cut down on time and money in carrying out overseas trade.

However, defence exports and incentives to promote overseas trade in this sector will be given utmost importance in the FTP likely to be announced anytime after Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana are over.

The aim is also to completely eliminate government-exporter interface by digitising the process from filing of application to getting approvals for exports.

At present, an exporter has to take clearance from 9 to 13 places including customs, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, wildlife, environment and others. The FTP 2014-19  is expected to do away with the current practice by resorting to paperless approvals.

“There will be a complete overhaul of the FTP. There is a chapter called ‘Chapter Three’ under the FTP which has the provision of post export incentives or ‘duty credit scrips’ given to exporters. The chapter has six to seven heads under which sops are given.

Most of them overlap. The attempt is to reduce those seven to maximum one or two,” a government official involved with the preparation of the FTP told Deccan Herald. He said that most of the schemes under this chapter have outlived their utility.

The post export incentives were aimed at helping exporters through the global economic downturn.

However, its provisions have not met these objectives fully. Besides, the government feels export promotion through adding incentives is not WTO-complaint.