The Hindu Business Line : Importers of restricted items need to specify port upfront

New Delhi, Sept. 13 In a bid to ensure better monitoring of imports of restricted items, the Government has now required importers to specify upfront the port through which the import of such items would take place.

The name of the port would have to be specified at the time of application for the import authorisation. All imports against the said authorisation would have to be made only through that port, according to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

However, the authorisation holder could, if needed, obtain permission from customs authority concerned to import through any other specified port.

Currently, there are about 400 items that are under the “restricted” category for the purpose of imports. Restricted items for imports include worn clothing, durum wheat seed, rice seed, nuclear reactors, radio broadcast transmitter and marine radio communication.

“This move is aimed at better monitoring of imports of restricted items. Once the port name is specified, the Government can always verify later the quantity of imports that has taken place through that port. Quite often import authorisations are issued and imports don’t happen at all,” sources said.

Trade experts pointed out that an importer of restricted items would lose some flexibility as earlier he had the option to import from any port and changes could take place depending on trade requirements. Now, flexibility would not be fully available and the customs permission would have to be taken for change in the port of import.

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Importers of restricted items need to specify port upfront