Hegde has removed 326 items from restricted list of imports. These include toilet soaps, shaving creams and canned juices. Though this doesn't mean that India will suddenly be flooded with these products. The duty rates on these are still high enough to ensure that domestic products do not lose out. The emphasis of the amended Exim policy for the period 1997-2002 is to allow duty-free imports for small scale exporters. Other measures involve reduced procedural bottlenecks for exporters. The minimum threshold limit of Rs 20 crore for duty-free imports of capital goods under the EPCG scheme has been slasheddramatically to Rs 1 crore, putting it within the reach of a large number of exporters.

Units which export Rs 1 crore worth of agricultural and related goods can now qualify for duty-free imports of capital goods. The previous limit for this was Rs 5 crore. For software exports, this limit has further been brought down to Rs 10 lakh. Boosting exports has been the main theme behind the measures. With exports falling sharply in the last two years, the Government and the industry are worried about the future. In order to cut red-tape, the Government has done away with minimum value addition of 33 per cent on duty-free imports against advance licences. This meant that exporters who got advance licences for duty-free imports of, say worth Rs 100 of components, had to export goods worth at least Rs 133. But this caused unnecessary bureaucratic delays.

Issuing of licenses such as the advance license for export houses/trading houses has also been simplified. These exporters, who account for around 70 per cent ofthe country's total, will now get their licenses automatically. Any problems, such as non-fulfilment of earlier export obligations, will be dealt with later. Other licensing functions are also to be decentralised, some of these to the offices at various ports.

Relaxations have also been made in the current EPCG scheme under which exporters have to export only goods manufactured by using the capital goods imported by them. With an enhanced export obligation of 50 per cent, this has now been relaxed.

Hegde also announced that he was in favour of setting up a separate ministry for infrastructure, so that this genre of problems of exporters could be taken care of. Pharmaceutical companies are now to be allowed to export free samples as is the practice overseas, and the garments sector will be allowed to import trimmings as part of personal baggage. Gold jewelry exporters are to be given duty-drawback, to help improve profitability.

All are welcome

Just before they demitted office, former IndustryMinister Murasoli Maran and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram suggested that the FIPB should be disbanded. But in the absence of clear foreign investment guidelines, this move would not have helped. To put speculation at rest, the current Industry Minister Sikander Bakht has decided not to close down FIPB.

Advocating a case-by-case approach, Bakht said the BJP government would prefer to use discretionary powers and ``the FDI inflow will depend on the nature of every case that comes up''. Significantly, he also announced that all foreign investment was welcome as long as it created jobs and did contributed to exports. This is a departure from the BJP's earlier policy of discouraging certain type of investments.