Foreign trade in India is promoted and facilitated by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI). The DGFT issues the authorisation to exporters and monitors their corresponding obligations through a network of 38 regional offices. The DGFT also implements the Foreign Trade Policy of India.
Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) is the prime policy that lays down simple and transparent procedures which are easy to comply with and administer for efficient management of foreign trade in India. The Policy aims at enhancing the country’s trade for economic growth and employment generation. The Customs Tariff Act and the Central Excise Tariff Act are the other two important Acts that lay down how the Customs and Excise duties shall be levied on trade, respectively.
India achieved all-time high annual merchandise export of $417.81 bn in FY 2021-22, an increase of 43.18% over $291.81 bn in FY2020-21 and an increase of 33.33% over $313.36 bn in FY2019-20.
India’s overall exports (i.e. Services and Merchandise) touched $ 676.2 bn in financial year 2021-2022 as both Services and Merchandise hit record high exports in financial year 2021-2022. India’s overall exports were $ 526.6 bn and $ 497.9 bn in 2019-20 and 2020-21 respectively.
India has achieved a monthly value of merchandise export in April 2022 amounting to $ 38.19 bn, an increase of 24.22% over $ 30.75 bn in April 2021. Merchandise Exports scale a new high in April; cross $ 40 bn, registering 30% growth over April, 2021.
Information on all Customs procedures and regulatory compliances can be accessed at www.cip.icegate.gov.in/CIP for nearly 12,000 Customs Tariff Items.
Moreover, Government has also released ‘Trade Facilitation Measures to ease of the export-import facilitations in India during the outbreak of COVID-19.