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Free import of gold, silver allowed New Delhi, January 28 Besides, a number of procedural simplifications have been sought by introducing digital signature, electronic fund transfer and message exchange. The government has also accorded import benefits to Heritage I and Heritage II hotels and raised the ceiling of exports of gifts to Rs 5 lakh a year. Imports of agriculture and dairy products and cars will continue to remain on restricted lists even as all kinds of capital goods, including office and professional equipment, will be allowed under the duty-free entitlement scheme. The announcements, dubbed by many as a mini-Exim Policy of sorts, come a couple of weeks after the Centre unveiled some sweeping tax breaks, especially on the front of customs duty. Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley, who made the announcements here, said these were “some facilitation measures in relationship to last year’s Exim Policy, which we thought we should announce”. “This year has been challenging because of the hardening of the rupee, which made domestic products costlier,” he said, adding that it was necessary that trade facilitation measures were announced as a measure of continuity with respect to the last year’s Exim Policy. The measures announced today include the removal of capital goods from duty entitlement passbook (DEPB) scheme. In addition, imports of global positioning system receivers will now be allowed. The Centre has also allowed free import of electrical energy and the equity base of Export and Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) has been raised to Rs 800 crore from the present Rs 500 crore. Besides, a national export insurance account is being established from the ECGC to underwrite high-value projects implemented by domestic companies in overseas locations. The Commerce Minister said advance license for free-of-cost material had been reintroduced and the non-tariff barriers applicable on imports of export production rationalised for food and textile items. The sensitive list of the duty-free replenishment certificate scheme has been reduced. Besides, a “gold-card scheme” will be launched, aimed at providing easier availability of funds to credit-worthy exporters at convenient terms. The government, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will work out modalities of the scheme. In addition, advance licence for intermediate supplies has been allowed against the duty-free replenishment scheme. The existing mandatory requirement of quality certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been revised for importers who have captive consumption and in-house testing facilities. In another simplification, the payment of composition fee for extension of export obligation has been reduced and linked to duty-saved amount. It has also been decided to charge only 50 per cent fee if licence application is made on line. It was, however, clarified that the benefit of duty-free imports to hotels would be allowed only if these were passed on to consumers. In another measure, aimed at improving export infrastructure, rupee payments received for port handling services will be counted for discharge of export obligations under the EPCG scheme. Import of prototypes will be allowed to actual users without any limit. The existing restrictions of 10 per annum will stand removed. “All these will not only reduce transaction costs for the exporting community, but also impart greater transparency and reduce the discretion while availing various benefits under the Exim Policy,” Mr Jaitley said.  |
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