India extends foreign trade policy for one year amid coronavirus pandemic

India's Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) ending March 2020 has been extended by another year. The existing sops will thus continue till March 31, 2021. The present Policy which came into force on 1st April, 2015, is for 5 years and was originally valid up to March 31, 2020.

In a press release, Commerce Ministry said the decision was in view of the unprecedented situation arising out of the coronavirus pandemic. Salient points of the changes made in the FTP are as follows:

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1. To provide continuity in the policy regime, the current FTP, valid till March 31, 2020 has been extended till March 31, 2021. Similar extension is made in the related procedures, by extending validity of Hand Book of Procedures.
2. 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. Decision on continuation of SEIS will be taken and notified subsequently.
3. Similarly, validity period of the Status Holder Certificates is also extended. This will enable the Status Holders to continue to avail the specified facilities/benefits.
4. 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 March 31, 2021.
5. The scheme for providing "Transport Marketing Assistance on the specified Agricultural Products" is further extended for one year.
6. Validity period for making imports under various duty free import authorisations (AA/DFIA/EPCG) expiring between February 1, 2020 and July 31, 2020, has been allowed automatic extension for another six months from the date of expiry, without requirement of obtaining such endorsement on these authorisations.
7. Whereever the period to make export is expiring between February 1, 2020 and July 31, 2020 under various authorisations, automatic extension in the export obligation period is allowed for another six months from the date of expiry, without payment of any composition fee.
8. Last dates for applying for various duty credit scrips (MEIS/SEIS/ROSCTL) and other authorisations have been extended.
9. Timelines for imposing late cuts, on the applications which are filed after the prescribed dates, have been relaxed.
10. Validity period of Letter of Permission/ Letter of Intent as granted to EOUs, units in STPs/EHTPs/BTPs is further extended up to December 31, 2020.
11. Last date of filing applications for refund of TED/Drawback, Transport and Marketing Assistance has been extended.
12. Extension in time has been allowed for filing various Reports/Returns etc. under various provisions of the FTP.

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