According to the notification by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, the import policy of the power tillers and its components have been amended from free to restricted with restrictions thus discouraging the inbound shipments of the product. A product under restricted category means requirement of licence by the importer from DGFT.
The tiller is an agri-machinery used for soil preparation. The components of power tillers include engine, transmission, chassis and rotavator. In a public notice, the directorate has laid out a procedure for giving import licenses. It said that the cumulative value of authorisation issued to any firm/all firms in a year would not be exceeding 10 per cent of the value of power tillers imported during the past year (2019-20) by that company.
The cap of 10 per cent would also be applicable for components of power tillers. The applicant should have been in the business for at least three years and should have sold a minimum of 100 power tillers in the past 3 years, it said.
