India’s new Foreign Trade Policy is great in terms of simplifying the complex, but lacks innovation. Much planning would have gone into its preparation, but no page in the document reads out-of-the-box. It will ease doing business, but it probably won’t help initiating business. It treats both merchandise and services exports alike, but the treatment is nothing special. It has several provisions to boost domestic manufacturing, but none of them can be labelled a game changer. Bottom line – the new FTP, which was released this time on a day meant to celebrate practical jokes and hoaxes – after a delay of almost a year – is about incremental progress. But whether it can handhold India past the many wide waters is an open question. The Dollar Business presents exclusive analyses of some highlights of the new Foreign Trade Policy

Click on each of the following topics to read our extensive coverage.

A TDB exclusive: DGFT on the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20

Some consider India’s new Foreign Trade Policy an inspiring manoeuvre. Others classify it as just incremental. Whatever popular opinion be, Pravir Kumar, feels that minus some miracles, the new policy has what it takes to make India an unsinkable titanic on the high, trading seas. And that nothing’s perfect. read more

Merchandise exports from india scheme (MEIS)

The Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) in the new FTP that replaces erstwhile Chapter 3 incentive schemes, promises to address complex procedures, manufacturing hurdles and boost India’s merchandise exports. Can it prove to be the single greatest instrument of change for ‘Make & Export from India’? read more

Service Export from India Scheme (SEIS)

The introduction of Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) is a significant announcement of the FTP 2015-2020 and a large improvement over the previous version (SFIS). But how big a secret is the fact that it’s afterall just one big experiment? And one that could prove very expensive to the exchequer! read more

Duty Remission and Exemption

Although the government has tried to make duty exemption and remission schemes more lucrative for exporters under the new Foreign Trade Policy, there remain issues that need to be sorted out if the government really want exporters to benefit from these schemes read more

Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG)

Capital goods are key to manufacturing. And since the Modi government has made boosting India’s manufacturing sector one of its top priorities, it’s no surprise that the new FTP has several provisions to enable this. One such key provision is a minor tweak in the EPCG scheme. But is it going to be enough? read more

Deemed Exports/EOUs/BTPs/EHTPs/STPs

Ever since the Government of India decided that Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are the way forward for India’s exports, there have been big question marks over the future of Export Oriented Units (EOUs), Electronic Hardware Technology Parks (EHTPs), Software Technology Parks (STPs) and Bio-Technology Parks (BTPs). Did the new FTP answer these questions? Similarly, wasn’t the delay of a year enough to fix some bugs in the Deemed Exports scheme? read more

Exclusive interview: Additional DGFT

Additional DGFT D. K. Singh believes that the first step towards increasing India’s exports is simple – the country should try and export goods worth $1 billion everyday. And to do this, it needs to attract new talent into international trade by providing them a policy which is simple and makes the process easier read more