Government Extended The Foreign Trade Policy For Six Months

The government on Monday said it has decided to extend the existing foreign trade policy (2015-20) for another six months till March 2023. The current Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) was to end on 30 September.

The policy was first extended on March 31, 2020, for a year due to the pandemic and the lockdown imposed to control its spread.

The latest extension comes amid India's export growth slowing. India's goods exports rose 1.62% in August, while the trade deficit more-than-doubled to $27.98 billion.

Amit Yadav, additional secretary in the commerce department, said there had been demands from various quarters, including industry associations and export promotion councils, to expand the policy and not introduce a new policy at this time.

He said that at present there are challenges like global uncertainty and currency volatility. Business people believe that it will be right to implement the rollout of the new policy with the new financial year. Therefore, it was decided to extend the old foreign trade policy for an additional six months. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry had earlier announced that it would announce a new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) by the end of this month.

According to information obtained, the final decision to extend the deadline was made following a meeting on Monday at the prime minister's office between Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Secretary of Commerce BVR Subrahmanyam, and Officer of Special Duty Sunil Barthwal. There were also discussions about the necessity for a program to provide incentives for the export of services, particularly now that the export of goods is slowing.