The government has undertaken a series of targeted reforms to strengthen the functioning of Norms Committees (NCs) under the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). The Ministry of Commerce and Industry in a statement, said that these measures are aimed at improving turnaround time, enabling early approvals and enhancing transparency and predictability under the Advance Authorisation Scheme. In order to ensure Ease of Doing Business and trade facilitation for exporters, these schemes have been issued allowing duty-free import of inputs that are physically incorporated in export products.

The Ministry said a series of reforms have been introduced to address the functioning of NCs that has been impacted by capacity constraints due to a limited number of Technical Authorities . The reforms aim to strengthen governance and processes, augmentation of Technical Capacity along with others. These measures are aligned with the Government’s agenda of creating a facilitative and predictable trade environment, particularly for MSMEs. A streamlined norms fixation process is expected to reduce transaction costs, shorten authorisation timelines and enhance India’s export competitiveness.