New trade policy makes doing business in India easy

The new foreign trade policy unveiled on Wednesday here aims to make doing business in India easy by moving towards a paperless working environment.

"Trade facilitation and enhancing the ease of doing business are the focus areas in the new policy," Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters on the occasion.

As the first trade initiative of the 10-month NDA government to boost manufacturing, improve services, create jobs and boost exports, the five-year policy (2015-20) enables manufacturers to self certify their goods in phases, as originating from India to qualify for preferential treatment under bilateral and regional trade pacts.

"To minimise paper work and check red-tape, we have reduced the number of documents for exports and imports to three, which is on par with international benchmarks," Sitharaman said.

Traders can upload documents in exporter/importer profile directly and exporters need not submit documents again.

Similarly, export-import forms have been simplified to provide clarity in provisions, remove ambiguity and enhance e-governance.

"The new system will help manufacturer-exporters get faster access to international markets," Sitharaman said.

The ministry has also introduced the aMerchandise exports from India scheme' for export of specified goods to specified markets and aServices exports from India scheme' for increasing exports of notified services.

"The new policy provides a framework for increasing export of goods and services, generate employment and increasing value addition in the country," the minister observed.

To boost exports from SEZz (special economic zones), the government has also extended benefits of both the reward schemes to units in such zones.