We offer our professional consultancy in the areas of Authorisation / Licencing schemes of the Foreign Trade Policy, each of which has been briefly outlined as below:-

1. DUTY EXEMPTION SCHEMES
Duty Exemption Schemes enable duty free import of inputs required for export production. A Duty Remission Scheme enables post export replenishment / remission of duty on inputs used in the export product. Goods exported under Advance Authorisation / DFRC / DEPB may be re-imported in the same or substantially the same form subject to such conditions as may be specified by the Department of Revenue from time to time.

Advance / Advance Intermediate Authorisation
An Advance Authorisation / Advance Intermediate Authorisation is issued to allow duty free import of inputs, which are physically incorporated in the export product. In addition, fuel, oil, energy, catalysts etc. which are consumed in the course of their use to obtain the export product, may also be allowed under the scheme.

Advance Authorisation can be issued for:-

Physical Exports;
Intermediate Supplies;
Deemed Exports;

2. Duty Free Import Authorisation (DFIA)

This scheme will come into force from 1st May, 2006.

A Duty Free Import Authorisation is issued to allow duty free import of inputs which are used in the manufacture of the export product (making normal allowance for wastage), and fuel, energy, catalyst etc. which are consumed or utilised in the course of their use to obtain the export product.
The Authorisation shall be issued on the basis of inputs and export items given under Standard Input and Output Norms (SION). The import entitlement shall be limited to the quantity mentioned in SION.
Such Authorisation can be issued either to a manufacturer exporter or merchant exporter tied to supporting manufacturer(s)
A minimum 20% value addition shall be required for issuance of such Authorisation
Once export obligation has been fulfilled, request for transferability of the Authorisation or the inputs imported against it may be made before the Regional Authority. Once, transferability is endorsed, the Authorisation holder will be at liberty to transfer the duty free inputs, other than fuel and any other item (s) notified by DGFT for this purpose.

3. EPCG SCHEME
The EPCG scheme allows import of capital goods for pre production, production and post production at 3% Customs duty subject to an export obligation equivalent to 8 times of duty saved on capital goods imported to be fulfilled over a period of 8 years reckoned from the date of issuance of the authorisation.
The capital goods shall include spares (including refurbished/ reconditioned spares), tools, jigs, fixtures, dies and moulds. EPCG Authorisation may also be issued for import of components of such capital goods required for assembly or manufacturer of capital goods by the authorisation holder.
An EPCG authorisation can also be issued for import of capital goods for supply to projects notified by the Central Board of Excise and Customs under wherein the basic customs duty on imports is 10% with a CVD of 14%.
Payment of Duty under EPCG Scheme, through debit of DEPB or other duty credit scrips would be allowed w.e.f. 01.01.2009

4. STATUS HOLDERS
Merchant as well as Manufacturer Exporters, Service Providers, Export Oriented Units (EOUs) and Units located in Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Agri Export Zone (AEZs), Electronic Hardware Technology Parks (EHTPs), Software Technology Parks (STPs) and Bio Technology Parks (BTPs) shall be eligible for status.
Applicant shall be categorized depending on his total FOB (FOR - for deemed exports) export performance during current plus previous three years (taken together) upon exceeding limit below. For Export House (EH) Status, export performance is necessary in at least two out of four years (i.e., current plus previous three years).

A Status Holder shall be eligible for the following facilities:

Authorisations and Customs clearances for both imports and exports on self-declaration basis;

Fixation of Input-Output norms on priority within 60 days;

Exemption from compulsory negotiation of documents through banks. Remittance / Receipts, however, would be received through banking channels;

100% retention of foreign exchange in EEFC account;

Enhancement in normal repatriation period from 180 days to 360 days;

Exemption from furnishing of Bank Guarantee in Schemes under FTP;

SEH and above shall be permitted to establish Export Warehouses as per DoR guidelines.

Target Plus Incentive previously available to Status Holders stands abolished for exports from 01.04.2006 vide Notification No: 57 (RE-2005)/2004-2009 dt: 31.03.2006. Relevant paragraph in the policy stands deleted.

6. Focus Market Scheme

The objective of the Focus Market Scheme is to offset the high freight cost and other disabilities to select international markets with a view to enhance our export competitiveness to these countries.
Exports of all products to the notified countries shall be entitled for duty credit scrip equivalent to 2.5% of the FOB value of exports for each licensing year commencing from 1st April, 2006. The scrip and the items imported against it would be freely transferable.
Under the Scheme, export to all countries as specified in the Handbook of Procedures (Vol. I) shall qualify for export benefits with certain exceptions as outlined.
The Duty Credit may be used for import of inputs or goods including capital goods, provided the same is freely importable under ITC (HS).
Exporters shall have the option to apply for benefit either under the Focus Market Scheme or under the Focus Product Scheme or under Vishesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana in respect of the same exported product/s.
Appendix 37C - List of Notified Markets under Focus Market Scheme

7. Focus Product Scheme
The objective of the Focus Product Scheme is to incentivise export of such products which have high employment intensity in rural and semi urban areas so as to offset the inherent infrastructure inefficiencies and other associated costs involved in marketing of these products.
Exports of notified products to all countries shall be entitled for duty credit scrip equivalent to 1.25% of the FOB value of exports for each licensing year commencing from 1st April, 2006. The scrip and the items imported against it would be freely transferable.
Under the Scheme, export of such products as specified in the Handbook of Procedures (Vol. I) shall qualify for export benefits with certain exceptions as outlined.
The Duty Credit may be used for import of inputs or goods including capital goods, provided the same is freely importable under ITC (HS).
Exporters shall have the option to apply for benefit either under the Focus Market Scheme or under the Focus Product Scheme or under Vishesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana in respect of the same exported product/s.
Appendix 37D - List of Notified Products under Focus Product Scheme

8. SERVICES EXPORTS
With the new Foreign Trade Policy, the Government of India has aimed to accelerate the growth in export of services so as to create a powerful and unique ‘Served from India’ brand.
In light of the above, all Service providers who have a total foreign exchange earning or earning in Indian Rupees which are otherwise considered as having been paid for in free foreign exchange by RBI, of at least Rs.10 lakhs in the preceding or current financial year shall be eligible to qualify for duty credit scrip.
They shall be entitled to duty credit equivalent to 10% of the foreign exchange earned by them in the preceding financial year.
Duty credit entitlement may be used for import of any capital goods including spares, office equipment and professional equipment, office furniture and consumables, provided it is part of their main line of business.
Appendix 10 - List of Eligible Services.

9. 100% EOU, SEZ, etc.
Units undertaking to export their entire production of goods and services (except permissible sales in the DTA), may be set up under the Export Oriented Unit (EOU) Scheme, Electronic Hardware Technology Park (EHTP) Scheme, Software Technology Park (STP) Scheme or Bio-Technology Park (BTP) scheme for manufacture of goods, including repair, re-making, reconditioning, re-engineering and rendering of services. Trading units, however, are not covered under these schemes.
Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a specifically delineated duty free enclave and shall be deemed to be foreign territory for the purposes of trade operations and duties and tariffs.

SEZ units may be set up for manufacture of goods and rendering of services.
Goods and services going into the SEZ area from DTA shall be treated as exports and goods coming from the SEZ area into DTA shall be treated as if these are being imported.
The Income Tax exemption previously available to 100% EOUs u/s 10B of the IT Act, till 31.03.2009 has been extended for one more year.

10) Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)
Objective Objective of the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) is to promote the manufacture and export of notified goods/ products. 52 3.04 Entitlement under MEIS Exports of notified goods/products with ITC[HS] code, to notified markets as listed in Appendix 3B, shall be rewarded under MEIS. Appendix 3B also lists the rate(s) of rewards on various notified products [ITC (HS) code wise]. The basis of calculation of reward would be on realised FOB value of exports in free foreign exchange, or on FOB value of exports as given in the Shipping Bills in freely convertible foreign currencies, whichever is less, unless otherwise specified. 3.05 Export of goods through courier or foreign post offices using eCommerce (i) Exports of goods through courier or foreign post office using ecommerce, as notified in Appendix 3C, of FOB value upto Rs. 25000 per consignment shall be entitled for rewards under MEIS. (ii) If the value of exports using e-commerce platform is more than Rs 25000 per consignment then MEIS reward would be limited to FOB value of Rs.25000 only. (iii) Such goods can be exported in manual mode through Foreign Post Offices at New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. (iv) Export of such goods under Courier Regulations shall be allowed manually on pilot basis through Airports at Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai as per appropriate amendments in regulations to be made by Department of Revenue. Department of Revenue shall fast track the implementation of EDI mode at courier terminals. 3.06 Ineligible categories under MEIS The following exports categories /sectors shall be ineligible for Duty Credit Scrip entitlement under MEIS (i) Supplies made from DTA units to SEZ units (ii) Export of imported goods covered under paragraph 2.46 of FTP; (iii) Exports through trans-shipment, meaning thereby exports that are originating in third country but trans-shipped through India; (iv) Deemed Exports; (v) SEZ/ EOU /EHTP/ BTP /FTWZ products exported through DTA units; (vi) Export products which are subject to Minimum export price or export duty. (vii) Exports made by units in FTWZ.

11) Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS)

Objective Objective of Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) is to encourage and maximize export of notified Services from India. 3.08 Eligibility (a) Service Providers of notified services, located in India, shall be rewarded under SEIS. Only Services rendered in the manner as per Para 9.51(i) and Para 9.51(ii) of this policy shall be eligible. The notified services and rates of rewards are listed in Appendix 3D. (b) Such service provider should have minimum net free foreign exchange earnings of US$15,000 in preceding financial year to be eligible for Duty Credit Scrip. For Individual Service Providers and sole proprietorship, such minimum net free foreign exchange earnings criteria would be US$10,000 in preceding financial year. (c) Payment in Indian Rupees for service charges earned on specified services, shall be treated as receipt in deemed foreign exchange as per guidelines of Reserve Bank of India. The list of such services is indicated in Appendix 3E. (d) Net Foreign exchange earnings for the scheme are defined as under: Net Foreign Exchange = Gross Earnings of Foreign Exchange minus Total expenses / payment / remittances of Foreign Exchange by the IEC holder, relating to service sector in the Financial year. (e) If the IEC holder is a manufacturer of goods as well as service provider, then the foreign exchange earnings and Total expenses / payment / remittances shall be taken into account for service sector only. (f) In order to claim reward under the scheme, Service provider shall have to have an active IEC at the time of rendering such services for which rewards are claimed. 54 3.09 Ineligible categories under SEIS Foreign exchange remittances other than those earned for rendering of notified services would not be counted for entitlement. Thus, other sources of foreign exchange earnings such as equity or debt participation, donations, receipts of repayment of loans etc. and any other inflow of foreign exchange, unrelated to rendering of service, would be ineligible. 3.10 Entitlement under SEIS Service Providers of eligible services shall be entitled to Duty Credit Scrip at notified rates (as given in Appendix 3D) on net foreign exchange earned. 3.11 Remittances through Credit Card and other instruments for MEIS and SEIS Free Foreign Exchange earned through international credit cards and other instruments, as permitted by RBI shall also be taken into account for computation of value of exports. 3.12 Effective date of schemes (MEIS and SEIS) The schemes shall come into force with effect from the date of notification of this Policy, i.e. the rewards under MEIS/SEIS shall be admissible for exports made/services rendered on or after the date of notification of this Policy. 3.13 Special Provisions (a) Government reserves the right in public interest, to specify export products or services or markets, which shall not be eligible for computation of entitlement of duty credit scrip. (b) Government reserves the right to impose restriction / change the rate/ceiling on Duty Credit Scrip under this chapter. (c) Government may also notify goods in Appendix 3A which shall not be allowed for debiting through Duty Credit Scrips in case of import. (d) Government may prescribe value cap of any kind for a product(s) or limit total reward per IEC holder under this chapter at any time.

12) Common Provisions for Exports from India Schemes (MEIS and SEIS)

Transitional Arrangement For the goods exported or services rendered upto the date of notification of this Policy, which were otherwise eligible for issuance of scrips under erstwhile Chapter 3 of the earlier Foreign Trade Policy(ies) and scrip is applied / issued on or after notification of this Policy against such export of goods or services rendered, the then prevailing policy and procedure regarding eligibility, entitlement, transferability, usage of scrip and any other condition in force at the time of export of goods or rendering of the services, shall be applicable to such scrips. 3.15 CENVAT/ Drawback Additional Customs duty specified under Sections 3(1), 3(3) and 3(5) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 /Central excise duty paid in cash or through debit under Duty Credit scrip shall be adjusted as CENVAT Credit or Duty Drawback as per DoR rules or notifications. Basic Custom duty paid in cash or through debit under Duty Credit scrip shall be adjusted for Duty Drawback as per DoR rules or notifications. 3.16 Import under lease financing Utilization of Duty Credit Scrip shall be permitted for payment of duty in case of import of capital goods under lease financing in terms of provision in paragraph 2.34 of FTP. 3.17 Transfer of export performance (a) Transfer of export performance from one IEC holder to another IEC holder shall not be permitted. Thus, a shipping bill containing name of applicant shall be counted in export performance / turnover of applicant only if export proceeds from overseas are realized in applicant’s bank account and this shall be evidenced from e - BRC / FIRC. (b) However, MEIS, rewards can be claimed either by the supporting manufacturer (along with disclaimer from the company / firm who has realized the foreign exchange directly from overseas) or by the company/ firm who has realized the foreign exchange directly from overseas.

13) Importer-Exporter Code (IEC)

(I) An IEC is a 10-character alpha-numeric number allotted to a person that is mandatory for undertaking any export/import activities. With a view to maintain the unique identity of an entity (firm/company/LLP etc.), consequent upon introduction / implementation of GST, IEC will be equal to PAN and will be separately issued by DGFT based on an application. (a) Application for obtaining IEC may be filed online in ANF 2A with applicable fees and submitted with digital signature. (b) When an e-IEC is approved by the competent authority, applicant is informed through e-mail that a computer generated e-IEC is available on the DGFT website. By clicking on “Application Status” after having filled and submitted the requisite details in “Online IEC Application” webpage, applicant can view and print his e-IEC. (c) The applicant may submit online application with the following details /documents (scanned copies to be submitted/ uploaded) along with the IEC application: (i) Digital photograph of the signatory applicant; (ii) Copy of the PAN card of the business entity in whose name Import/Export would be done (Applicant individual in case of Proprietorship firms); (iii) Cancelled cheque bearing entity’s pre-printed name or Bank certificate in prescribed format ANF-2A(I) (d) For modification in IEC, applicants may submit online application through digital signature (Class-II or Class-III), by paying applicable fees and uploading requisite documents, corresponding to the changes sought. (e) Detailed guidelines for applying for e-IEC is available at http://dgft.gov.in/exim/2000/iec_anf/iecanf.htm (II) No Export/Import without IEC: (i) No export or import shall be made by any person without obtaining an IEC number unless specifically exempted. 26 (ii) Exempt categories and corresponding permanent IEC numbers are given in Para 2.07 of Handbook of Procedures.

14) Mandatory documents for export/import of goods from/into India

(a) Mandatory documents required for export of goods from India: 1. Bill of Lading/ Airway Bill/ Lorry Receipt/ Railway Receipt/Postal Receipt 2. Commercial Invoice cum Packing List* 3. Shipping Bill/Bill of Export/ Postal Bill of Export (b) Mandatory documents required for import of goods into India 1. Bill of Lading/Airway Bill/Lorry Receipt/ Railway Receipt/Postal Receipt in form CN-22 or CN 23 as the case may be. 2. Commercial Invoice cum Packing List* 3. Bill of Entry [Note: *(i) As per CBEC Circulars issued under the Customs Act, 1962 (ii) Separate Commercial Invoice and Packing List would also be accepted.] (c) For export or import of specific goods or category of goods, which are subject to any restrictions/policy conditions or require NOC or product specific compliances under any statute, the regulatory authority concerned may notify additional documents for purposes of export or import. (d) In specific cases of export or import, the regulatory authority concerned may electronically or in writing seek additional documents or information, as deemed necessary to ensure legal compliance. 27 (e) The above stipulations are effective from 1st April, 2015.

Principles of Restrictions :
DGFT may, through a Notification, impose restrictions on export and import, necessary for: - (a) Protection of public morals; (b) Protection of human, animal or plant life or health; (c) Protection of patents, trademarks and copyrights, and the prevention of deceptive practices; (d) Prevention of use of prison labour; (e) Protection of national treasures of artistic, historic or archaeological value; (f) Conservation of exhaustible natural resources; (g) Protection of trade of fissionable material or material from which they are derived; (h) Prevention of traffic in arms, ammunition and implements of war (i) Relating to the importation or exportation of gold or silver. 2.08
Export/Import of Restricted Goods/Services :
Any goods /service, the export or import of which is ‘Restricted’ may be exported or imported only in accordance with an Authorisation / Permission or in accordance with the Procedures prescribed in a Notification / Public Notice issued in this regard.