The Director-General of Foreign Trade (“DGFT”) vide Notification No. 57/2015-2020 dated March 31, 2020, which makes amendment in the Foreign Trade Policy 2015 – 2020. Several other relief measures have also been announced to support trade and industry. The salient points of the changes made in the FTP are as follows:
- To provide continuity in the policy regime, the current FTP, valid till 31.03.2020 has been extended till 31.03.2021. A similar extension is made in the related procedures, by extending the validity of the Hand Book of Procedures.
- The benefit under all the Export Promotion Schemes (except SEIS) and other schemes, available as on date, will continue to be available for another 12 months. The decision on a continuation of SEIS will be taken and notified subsequently.
- Similarly, the validity period of the Status Holder Certificates is also extended. This will enable the Status Holders to continue to avail of the specified facilities/benefits.
- Exemption from payment of IGST and Compensation Cess on the imports made under Advance/EPCG Authorisations and by EOUs etc. has been extended up to 31.03.2021.
- The scheme for providing “Transport Marketing Assistance on the specified Agricultural Products” is further extended for one year.
- The validity period for making import under various duty-free import authorizations (AA/DFIA/EPCG) expiring between 01.02.2020 and 31.07.2020, has been allowed automatic extension for another six months from the date of expiry, without the requirement of obtaining such endorsement on these authorizations.
- Wherever the period to make export is expiring between 01.02.2020 and 31.07.2020 under various authorizations, automatic extension in the export obligation period is allowed for another six months from the date of expiry, without payment of any composition fee.
- The last dates for applying for various duty credit Scrips (MEIS/SEIS/ROSCTL) and other Authorisations have been extended.
- Timelines for imposing late cuts, on the applications which are filed after the prescribed dates, have been relaxed.
- The validity period of Letter of Permission/ Letter of Intent as granted to EOUs, units in STPs/EHTPs/BTPs is further extended up to 31st December 2020.
- The last date of filing applications for refund of TED/Drawback, Transport and Marketing Assistance has been extended.
- Extension in time has been allowed for filing various Reports/Returns etc. under various provisions of the FTP.
The Notification can be accessed at: https://dgft.gov.in/sites/default/files/Notification%2057%20eng%20signed%20and%20scanned%201.pdf