WARNS OF NEW NORMS
DGFT may license ‘other’ item imports
A bulk of the items in others category relates to chemicals, steel and machinery segments, but there are those which are related to telecom and IT as well, which the government is now threatening to block, unless the importers get specific product codes so that they can be tracked better. “If one-third or one fourth of the products are categorised as others, as a nation we can’t plan without having data on what is being imported,” commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal.
Last week, Goyal had cautioned that like Germany, the government may restrict the import of any product which goes in the others category.
Following up on the minister’s announcement, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade issued a public notice a few days ago warning importers that the government may shift “other” items into the licensed category instead of the free list that they are currently on. “If members of trade and industry are of the view that the existing HS codes are not sufficient to cover the goods that they are importing, they should immediately suggest appropriate HS codes…,” the agency said. Officials said that issuing the codes is not going to take time.
