The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in India and its regional offices under the Ministry of Commerce governs import exports. Authorised dealers may freely extend letter of credits and send remittances for imports. Import export procedures are much more relaxed compare to the past restrictions and the Government of India is in the process further relaxing the norms so as to make import export in India globally competitive

These objectives are proposed to be achieved by adopting, among others, the following strategies:

• Unshackling of controls and creating an atmosphere of trust and transparency to unleash the innate entrepreneurship of our businessmen, industrialists and traders.



• Simplifying procedures and bringing down transaction costs.



• Neutralizing incidence of all levies and duties on inputs used in export products, based on the fundamental principle that duties and levies should not be exported.



• Facilitating development of India as a global hub for manufacturing, trading and services.



• Identifying and nurturing special focus areas which would generate additional employment opportunities, particularly in semi-urban and rural areas, and developing a series of 'Initiatives' for each of these.



• Facilitating technological and infrastructural upgradation of all the sectors of the Indian economy, especially through import of capital goods and equipment, thereby increasing value addition and productivity, while attaining internationally accepted standards of quality.



• Avoiding inverted duty structures and ensuring that our domestic sectors are not disadvantaged in the Free Trade Agreements/Regional Trade Agreements/Preferential Trade Agreements that we enter into in order to enhance our exports.



• Upgrading our infrastructural network, both physical and virtual, related to the entire Foreign Trade chain, to international standards.



• Revitalising the Board of Trade by redefining its role, giving it due recognition and inducting experts on Trade Policy.



• Activating our Embassies as key players in our export strategy and linking our Commercial Wings abroad through an electronic platform for real time trade intelligence and enquiry dissemination.