Centre in favour of reducing import timeline for advance license to 12 months

KOLKATA: The central government is keen to lower the import timeline for advance license to 12 months from 18 months. It has often criticised the exporting community for permitting long gap between import and export against advance licenses.

Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Anup K Pujari said, “For the advance authorisation that DGFT grants from year 2013-14, we had brought it down from 24 months to 18 months. If we have our way, we would make this 12 months, which is good for the exporting community. We have been criticised by the exporting community. I want to ask which bright exporter among you takes 36 months to execute an export order?”

An advance licence is given for the import of inputs without the payment of basic customs duty. As per the present rule, the period allowed to import is 18 months and period permitted to export stands at 36 months.

Pujari stated that one of the key concerns for exporters across India is in regard to the cost of credit.