The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has launched a comprehensive overhaul of the Norms Committees under the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), targeting faster processing of Advance Authorisation applications and smoother operations for exporters.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has initiated a comprehensive overhaul of the Norms Committees functioning under the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). The reforms target faster processing of Advance Authorisation (AA) applications and ensuring a smooth process for exporters.
Seven of such Committees, comprising technical experts and officials drawn from multiple ministries, currently oversee this function. In recent times, capacity constraints had led to a significant accumulation of pending applications, prompting the government to act.
To resolve this, the government has established a process and capacity-related reforms. Under the revised framework, committee meetings will now be held on a fixed fortnightly schedule, long-pending cases will become top priority, and meeting minutes will be finalised within a stipulated timeframe.
Moreover, a more robust monitoring system will track case ageing and pendency levels. To bolster processing capacity, line ministries have been directed to nominate additional technical experts, raising the number of technical members from 12 to 22.
Further, a dedicated disposal drive has also been launched to clear the backlog in a time-bound manner, with cases being addressed in chronological order to uphold procedural fairness and transparency.
