Context
- The Union Commerce and Industry Ministry has announced changes in India’s Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).
- The Govt. has decided to continue relief under various export promotion schemes by granting an extension of the existing Policy.
Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20
- It provided 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’.
- It described the market and product strategy and measures required for trade promotion, infrastructure development and overall enhancement of the trade ecosystem.
Features of the FTP
- It introduced 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.
- It replaced a plethora of schemes earlier having different conditions for eligibility and usage with MEIS and SEIS.
- There would be no conditionality attached to any scrips issued under these schemes.
- 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%.
Source:PIB