Centre to announce restrictions on non-essential import items shortly

Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Wednesday informed that government will announce restrictions on non-essential import items very soon.

Garg's statement comes few days after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reiterated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central Government is confident of strictly maintaining the fiscal deficit target at 3.3 per cent.

Addressing a presser earlier in the month, Jaitley had said that a series of measures would be taken to curb current account deficit (CAD), including the omission of withholding tax on masala bonds, relaxation of foreign portfolio investments and curbs on non-essential imports to contain the increasing CAD and check the rupee depreciation.

 

Furthermore, Garg had said that the above decisions, which were taken in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, would have an impact of nearly USD 8-10 billion.