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Mohan Padmanabhan

Suggesting that this would also give the country mileage in WTO negotiations, the DGFT said sensitive items too could be safeguarded.

KOLKATA, May 3

THE common codes needed for customs tariffs, under the new 8-digit nomenclature, have been prepared, and the customs, the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade and the Director-General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) are working in tandem to make this new feature a successful tool in the country's external trade.

Talking to Business Line here at the sidelines of a FIEO-organised `open house' meet on post-policy action points, Mr N.L. Lakhanpal, Director-General of Foreign Trade, said certain changes had to be brought in the Customs Act for this purpose, and work in this direction was now on.

Besides simplification, the other advantages of 8-digit nomenclature under the harmonised code would be levying of lower import tariffs for key inputs needed for exports.

Suggesting that this would also give the country mileage in WTO negotiations, the DGFT said sensitive items too could be safeguarded.

Asked if there would be a convergence of export promotion schemes now in use such as the IBEF (India Brand Equity Fund), MDA (Market Development Assistance) and MAI (Market Access Initiative) in the near future, he replied in the negative, while pointing out that the intention was to work out a single scheme for duty rebate.

He, however, admitted that this would be possible only after a single VAT was put in place Suggesting that the changing world trading environment had been factored in while identifying the thrust export products, he said the focus products in each of the broad sectors such as textiles, gems & jewellery and engineering/electronics, had been identified after taking into account the MFN (most-favoured nation) duties, WTO-bound rates and also the non-tariff barriers.

Sounding confident about achieving the targeted $80 billion exports by 2007, under the new Medium Term Export Strategy (MTES), which is expected to give India a 1 per cent share in global trade, he said the three key action points in the immediate term would be: a) Rendering the MAI into a successful programme, b) New scheme of financial assistance to States to help leverage their export potential, and, c) Extra effort on the new Focus Africa programme and the ongoing Focus-LAC. Under the MAI, already some Rs 42 crore have been provided for different market study programmes and other proposals, he clarified.

Pointing out that an implementation committee under the Commerce Secretary had already been set up for monitoring the progress of work under the MTES on a monthly basis, Mr Lakhanpal said the institutional mechanism would provide a dynamic track against which implementation speed could be measured.

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