New Delhi: In pursuance of the government’s commitment to Ease of Doing Business and trade facilitation for exporters, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has undertaken a series of targeted reforms to strengthen the functioning of Norms Committees under the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to improve turnaround time, enable early approvals, and enhance transparency and predictability under the Advance Authorisation Scheme, as per an official statement issued on Friday.
The series of reforms that have been introduced includes the issuing of detailed guidelines to ensure uniformity and consistency in the functioning of Norms Committees (NCs). These include institutionalised scheduling of meetings on a fixed fortnightly cycle, prioritisation of long-pending cases, time-bound finalisation of meeting minutes, and systematic monitoring of pendency and case ageing. Efforts have also been made to identify recurring cases for conversion into standard input-output norms (SION) to reduce repetitive approvals, the statement said.
Line Ministries have also been requested to nominate additional technical officers to the Committees to enhance sectoral expertise and reduce dependence on a limited pool of members. Besides, a special drive has been launched for expeditious disposal of pending applications, with meetings being held on a fixed schedule and cases taken up in chronological order to ensure transparency and fairness.
As part of capacity augmentation, ten additional technical members have been nominated from various Ministries, increasing the total number of Technical Authorities from 12 to 22. This has strengthened the Committees’ ability to handle a higher volume of cases with improved efficiency.
The reforms have resulted in improved outcomes. Between January 2026 and April 7, 2026, a total of 38 meetings of Norms Committees were held, in which 3,925 cases were taken up, and 1,770 cases were disposed of, the statement said.
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.
The DGFT administers the Advance Authorisation (AA) Scheme and the Duty-Free Import Authorisation (DFIA) Scheme under the Foreign Trade Policy. These schemes allow duty-free import of inputs that are physically incorporated in export products. Authorisations are generally issued against the notified Standard Input Output Norms (SION). In cases where SION is not available, authorisations are issued based on self-declared input-output norms by applicants, which are subsequently examined and finalised by sector-specific Norms Committees.
At present, seven NCs are operational under the DGFT, covering a range of export sectors. These Committees comprise technical authorities and domain experts from relevant Ministries and Departments. They are responsible for the fixation of SION and ad-hoc norms, recommending SION notifications and facilitating the issuance of authorisations in accordance with the Foreign Trade Policy and Handbook of Procedures.
The functioning of NCs had been impacted by capacity constraints due to a limited number of Technical Authorities. As of early February 2026, only twelve technical members were associated with the Committees, including five serving Government officers, resulting in increasing pendency due to overlapping responsibilities, the statement added.
(IANS)
