Foreign Trade Policy to be extended till March

Tamil Nadu: The commerce ministry has extended the Foreign Trade Policy for the third time. This time, the policy will be in place till March next year.

On March 31, 2020, the government had extended the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-20 for one year till March 31, 2021, amid the Covid outbreak and the nationwide lockdown. It was further extended to September 30 this year as the economy is not fully out of the Covid impact.

The FTP provides guidelines for enhancing exports in order to push economic growth and create jobs. “We have decided to extend the policy until March 31 (2022)...and in the (new) financial year, we can start with the new policy,” commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said.

The industry too has welcomed the move. According to Ajay Sahai, director general and CEO of the Federation of Indian Export Organi-sations, status quo is better till the world recovers fully from the pandemic.

“Once the FTP is extended, the schemes will continue. As we are still facing the impacts of the pandemic, it is better to maintain status quo until the situation fully improves. We could probably take a call on a new FTP when the situation improves,” he said.

According to him, as the ministry has announced the rates of the new RoD-TEP incentive scheme and also started clearing the dues to the exporters, the new policy can wait. Moreover, once the trade situation becomes clearer, the new FTP could be tailored accordingly.