The Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has decided to relax some provisions of foreign trade policy (FTP) to help importers bring in their moong cargoes contracted before February 11, in a move that could provide relief to a section of the pulses trade.

Last month, the Centre had amended the moong import policy by moving it from ”free” to “restricted”, a move that shocked importers.

Following representation from various entities, the DGFT has decided to relax the FTP provision to allow importers to ship in moong for fiscal 2021-22, subject to some conditions. The quantity eligible for import would be proportionate to the amount paid prior to February 11, 2022, as advance. If the advance payment had been made in full for the entire contracted quantity, then the eligibility would be for the entire contracted quantity. “If there is a partial payment, quantity admissible for import shall be limited to the quantity in proportion to the advance payments made,” DGFT said in a trade notice issued on Monday.

DGFT said the import contracts should have been entered into prior to February 11 with payments made. Details of such contracts have to be registered before March 15 at the jurisdictional regional offices of additional DGFT in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Ludhiana.

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Trade sources, following the change in moong bean import policy early last month, had indicated that cargoes of upto 50,000 tonnes were getting prepared to be shipped to India before March 31 from origins such as Myanmar.

India’s moong imports during the April-September period of the current fiscal were valued at $76.9 million against $77.14 million in the entire f2020-21 fiscal.

As per the Second Advance Estimates, moong production in India during 2021-22 is expected to be 3.06 million tonnes, including 2 million tonnes in kharif and 1.06 million tonnes in rabi season.

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