India’s upcoming foreign trade policy is likely to ease the norms for import of raw materials and capital goods for exporters in a bid to provide a boost for exports, hit by sluggish global demand.

The Foreign Trade Policy 2020-25 will also offer higher export rewards to products with geographic indication (GI) tag such as Alphonso mango, Banarasisarees and Moradabadi metal craft with the Make in India scheme being at its core, officials aware of the details said.

The commerce department also proposes to lay special emphasis on services and ecommerce in the upcoming policy that is to come into effect on April 1, 2020.

“In certain cases, there are notional duties that increase the export obligation of the exporters. We are rationalizing some schemes to encourage them to do more local sourcing,” said an official.

The department is considering simplifying various export incentive schemes such as Advance Authorisation Scheme, which facilitates duty free import of inputs for export products, Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) that allows exporters to import certain amount of capital goods at zero duty for upgrading technology related with exports, and Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) to incentivise exports of various services ranging from legal and accounting to engineering and medical, officials said.

The department is also considering counting total exports of third party as export obligation instead of only proceeds realised from third party by EPCG holders.