The Commerce & Industry Ministry has called for suggestions from all stakeholders on the new five-year foreign trade policy to be implemented from the next fiscal as the one-year extension for the existing policy will expire on March 31, 2021.

The call for inputs for the new FTP comes at a time when exports in the first week of November posted a high growth of 22.5 per cent to $6.75 billion, as per figures tweeted by Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, raising hopes of a bounce-back following an overall decline in exports so far this fiscal.

A time-limit of 15 days has been given to export promotion councils and various trade bodies to give their inputs, as per a trade notice issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade on Thursday.

“The Foreign Trade Policy (2015-2020) was extended for a year till March 31 2021. In order to prepare a new five year Foreign Trade Policy, suggestions/inputs are invited from various stakeholders,” the trade notice stated.

"With expectations of new FTP being introduced, industry players would expect continuation of similar or higher magnitude of benefits that are currently there on export of goods and services, especially benefits under the current MEIS (Merchandise Export from India) and SEIS (Services Export from India) schemes. Also procedural simplification for schemes like Advance Authorisation and EOU would be looked forward to," said Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner, EY.

India’s exports during April-October 2020-21 were worth $150.07 billion, registering a decline of 19.05 per cent over the same period last year, as per early estimates released by the Commerce & Industry Minister this month.

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