Structure

• Introduction - objective of FTP
• Body- describe the features including significance
• Conclusion- briefly about possible impacts

Content

FOREIGN TRADE POLICY 2015-2020

• 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, in keeping with the “Make in India” vision of Prime Minister.

• The focus of the new policy is to support both the manufacturing and services sectors, with a special emphasis on improving the ‘ease of doing business’.

Salient features

•  Simplification & merger of reward schemes- Introduces two new schemes, namely “Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)” for export of specified goods to specified markets and “Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS)” for increasing exports of notified services, instead of multiple schemes earlier
• Duty scrips
  • There would be no conditionality attached to any scrips issued under these
  • Duty credit scrips issued under MEIS and SEIS and the goods imported against these scrips are fully transferable.
  • For grant of rewards under MEIS, the countries have been categorized into 3 Groups, whereas the rates of rewards under MEIS range from 2% to 5%.
  • Under SEIS the selected Services would be rewarded at the rates of 3% and 5%.
• EPCG scheme (Export Promotion Capital Goods) scheme - under the EPCG scheme specific export obligation has been reduced to 75% of the normal export This will promote the domestic capital goods manufacturing industry.
• Measures have been taken to give a boost to exports of defense and hi-tech items.
• At the same time 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
• In order to give a boost to exports from SEZs, government has now decided to extend benefits of both the reward schemes (MEIS and SEIS) to units located in
• Trade facilitation and enhancing the ease of doing business
  • One of the major objective of new FTP is to move towards paperless working in 24x7 Recently, the government has reduced the number of mandatory documents required for exports and imports to three, which is comparable with international benchmarks.
  • Now, a facility has been created to upload documents in exporter/importer profile and the exporters will not be required to submit documents
  • Attention has also been paid to simplify various ‘Aayat Niryat’ Forms, bringing in clarity in different provisions, removing ambiguities and enhancing electronic
  • Manufacturers, who are also status holders, will now be enabled to self-certify their manufactured goods in phases, as originating from India with a view to qualifying for preferential treatment under various forms of bilateral and regional trade This “Approved Exporter System” will help these manufacturer exporters considerably in getting fast access to international markets.
  • Considering the strategic significance of small and medium scale enterprise in the manufacturing sector and in employment generation, ‘MSME clusters’ 108 have been identified for focused interventions to boost
  • Accordingly, ‘Niryat Bandhu Scheme’ has been galvanized and repositioned to achieve the objectives of ‘Skill India’.
  • Outreach activities will be organized in a structured way at these clusters with the help of EPCs and other willing “Industry Partners” and “Knowledge Partners