Focus market cover for Africa gets approval

The commerce ministry's proposal to include African countries under the focus market scheme has been cleared by the committee of secretaries.

Though the scheme was announced in the annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy in April, its notification was held up due to the ministry's demand for including African countries. The scheme is now expected to be notified soon.

The ministry had argued that revenue forgone on account of both focus market and focus product schemes would not be more than Rs 600 crore per year even after the inclusion of African countries.

"The outgo will not increase as only countries to which India's exports are worth less than $200 million per year will be included. Countries like South Africa or Tanzania will not be covered," an official said.

Under the focus market scheme, export of all products, barring a negative list, are entitled to duty credit scrip equivalent to 2.5 per cent of the freight-on-board value of exports for each licensing year, from April 1, 2006. The scrip and the items imported against it would be freely transferable.

Items like diamonds, semi-precious stones, gold, silver, ores and concentrates, cereals, sugar, and crude and petroleum-based products would be excluded.