Export Promotion Councils asked for deferment of new Foreign Trade Policy by 6 months: Piyush Goyal

The much-anticipated Foreign Trade Policy, which was expected to come by the end of September, has been deferred by 6 months and the government extended the existing Foreign Trade Policy (2015-20) by another six months till March 2023 on account of volatile global economic and geopolitical situation and currency fluctuations and as demanded by export promotion councils.

However, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, while addressing AGM of Services Export Promotion Council, clarified that there was demand from majority of export promotion councils across India to align the new foreign trade policy with financial year and that is the reason the launch of the policy was delayed by six months.

"There are 40-50 export promotion councils (EPCs) in India and many of them asked for the delay and for aligning the policy with financial year," Goyal said.

Providing a clarification that EPCs were not consulted in deciding the extension of existing FTP by six months, Goyal said, "As far as ministry is concerned, Foreign Trade Policy is ready and if all EPCs would have been on the same page I would have launched the policy tomorrow, in fact, I can launch it tomorrow, but as requested by EPCs the new policy is deferred."

The decision of extending the existing FTP was sudden as some possible provisions of proposed new FTP (2022-27) were discussed at length at the recent Board of Trade meeting convened by the Commerce & Industry Ministry. There were reports about new FTP having no fiscal schemes for promoting exports. However, as per the reports, the policy focus was to be on promoting ease of trade, e-commerce, IT-enablement, R&D and export hubs and lowering transaction costs.

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