Sapta Duty Reliefs To Cover 1900 Items
The latest round of Saarc Preferential Trading Arrangement (Sapta) concessions in over 1,900 items will be operationalised by March 1.
As a result, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries namely, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives and India .will be able to trade in these items at far lower duty rates.
As part of the second round of concessions, India intends to offer approximately 25 per cent of all imports every year towards the South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta). The products on which concessions are proposed are primarily those on which no import restrictions apply.
Tariff cuts offered by India under Sapta have begun to show results as exports to Saarc countries rose by 50 per cent and imports from them by 58 per cent in 1995-96. Trade with these countries rose from just 4.62 per cent of overall Indian trade in 1994-95 to 5.36 per cent in 1995-96.
Imports from Saarc countries into India rose 58.57 per cent from Rs 538.20 crore in 1994-95 to Rs 853.43 crore in 1995-96, while exports from India to these countries increased by 49.64 per cent from Rs 3,815.06 crore to Rs 5,708.84 crore during the same period. Sapta became operational from December 7, 1995.
India obtained tariff concessions in a total of 135 different items in December 1995. The break up of concessions was: 64 items from Pakistan, 56 from Sri Lanka, 13 from Bangladesh, 88 from Bhutan, 92 from Nepal and 65 from the Maldives.
Under the agreement, India gave Saarc members concessional tariffs in 106 items subject to the condition that the importer prove the origin of the goods in accordance with the Customs tariff (Determination of Origin of Goods Under the Agreement on Saarc Preferential Trading Arrangement) rules of 1995.
The concessions varied from 10 per cent to 50 per cent of the applied tariff rates on different items.
Pakistan has not yet indicated its willingness to grant Most Favoured Nation treatment to India. However, India has decided to wait for the new Pakistan government to make up its mind rather than taking up the issue under the WTO dispute settlement system as it is entitled to.
The next meet of the committee of economic cooperation of Saarc is expected to be held in April.