Trade policy review report by the secretariat

3.1.8  Import prohibitions, restrictions, and licensing

1. 
   Import restrictions may be imposed under Section 3 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 and through notifications in the Official Gazette, under Section 11 of the Customs Act 1962, declaring the importation or exportation of any good as prohibited or restricted. Import restrictions may be imposed for security, self-sufficiency, balance-of-payments, health, and moral reasons.
   

3.1.8.19984  Import prohibitions

105. 
     Import prohibitions are mainly for health and safety reasons and include a range of products such as meat and offal of most wild animals, animal fats, and ivory and ivory powder. During the period under review, fatty liver (foie gras) (under HS02074300) was added to the list of goods subject to import prohibition (on 3 July 2014) in view of animal welfare (Table 3.8).²⁷
     
106. 
     Imports of some products from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Iran, Iraq, and Somalia are prohibited under UN resolutions.²⁸ Imports of rough diamonds from Venezuela are prohibited. For sanitary reasons, India has continued to ban imports of milk and milk products from China.²⁹
     

Table 3.18 Import prohibitions, 2014

Exim Code	Item description
0207 43 00	Fatty livers, fresh or chilled
0208 90 10	Other meat and edible meat offal, fresh, chilled or frozen of wild animals
0209 10 00	Of pigs
0209 90 00	Other
0410 00 10	Edible products of animal origin, not elsewhere specified or included of wild animals
0504 00 31	Guts of other animals for natural food casings of wild animals
0504 00 41	Guts other than for natural food castings of wild animals
0504 00 51	Bladders & stomachs of wild animals
0505 10 10	Feathers of a kind used for stuffing; down of wild birds
0505 90 21	Other feather (excluding for stuffing purpose): of wild birds
0505 90 31	Powder and waste of feathers or parts of feathers: of wild birds
0505 90 91	Skins and other parts: of wild birds
0506 10 11	Bones, including horn-cores, crushed: of wild animals
0506 10 21	Bone grist: of wild animals
0506 10 31	Ossein: of wild animals
0506 10 41	Bones, horn cones & parts thereof, not crushed: of wild animals
0506 90 11	Bone meal of wild animals
0506 90 91	Other: of wild animals
0507 10 10	Ivory
0507 10 20	Ivory powder and waste
0510 00 91	Ambergris, castoreum, civet and musk; cantharides; bile, whether or not dried; glands of wild animals
0511 91 10	Fish nails
0511 91 20	Fish tails
0511 91 30	Other fish waste
0511 99 21	Sinews and tendons of wildlife
0511 99 92	Bovine embryo - of wildlife
1501 10 10	Lard
1501 20 00	Other pig fat
1501 90 00	Other
1502 10 10	Mutton tallow
1502 10 90	Other
1502 90 10	Unrendered fats
1502 90 20	Rendered fats or solvent extraction facts
1502 90 90	Other
1502 00 30	Rendered or solvent extraction fats
1502 00 90	Other fats of bovine animals, sheep or goats, other than those of Heading 1503
1503 00 00	Lard stearin, lard oil, oleostearin, oleo-oil and tallow oil, not emulsified or mixed or otherwise prepared
1504 10 99	Other fats and oils and their fractions, of fish or marine mammals, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified
1504 20 30	Sperm oil
1504 20 90	Other fats and oils and their fractions of fish, other than liver oils
1504 30 00	Fats and oils and their fractions of marine mammals
1506 00 10	Neats foot oil and fats from bone or waste
1506 00 90	Other animal fats and oils and their fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified
1516 10 00	Animal fats and oils and their fractions
1517 10 10	Margarine of animal origin
1517 90 30	Imitation lard of animal origin
1518 00 40	Animal or vegetable fats and oils and their fractions, boiled, oxidized, dehydrated, sulphurized, blown, polymerized by heat in vacuum or in inert gas or otherwise chemically modified, excluding those of Heading 1516: inedible mixtures or preparations of animal or vegetable fats or oils of this Chapter, not elsewhere specified or included -Other
1522 00 10	Degras^a
1522 00 20	Soap stocks
1522 00 90	Other
3507 10 11	Microbial rennet: animal rennet
3507 10 19	Other enzymes; prepared enzymes not elsewhere specified or included
3507 10 91	Animal rennet
3507 10 99	Other animal rennet
4302 19 40	Tiger-cat skins
4303 10 10	Articles of apparel and clothing accessories of wild animals covered under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
4303 90 10	Other articles of fur skin of wild animals covered under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
8517	Telephone sets, including telephones for cellular networks or for other wireless networks; other apparatus for the transmission or reception of voice, images or other data, including apparatus for communication in a wired or wireless network (such as a local or wide area network), other than transmission or reception apparatus of Heading 8443, 8525, 8527 or 8528
9601 10 00	Worked ivory and articles of ivory

a Residues resulting from the treatment of fatty substances or animal or vegetable waxes.

Source: Department of Commerce (2010), Schedule 1: Import Policy, Foreign Trade Policy 2009 2014, incorporating Annual Supplement, 23 August. Viewed at: http://dgft.gov.in; and DGFT online information, "Notifications". Viewed at: http://dgft.gov.in, and information provided by the Indian authorities.

3.1.8.19985  Import licensing and restrictions

107. 
     India applies import licensing requirements in accordance with the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 and Foreign Trade (Regulation) Rules 1993. Licensing requirements may be eliminated without legislative approval.
     
108. 
     The Import Policy Schedule list items that are restricted and items that are restricted with a condition. Restricted items require a specific import licence issued by the DGFT. Restricted items subject to conditions require import permits (e.g. sanitary and phytosanitary permits) in addition to the specific import licence. All licence requirements are non-automatic. Under the current Import Policy Schedule (Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14), including supplements, some 445 tariff lines at the HS eight-digit level are subject to import restrictions. They represent around 3.9% of total tariff lines. Some 347 tariff lines are restricted while some 98 are restricted subject to conditions (Chart 3.3).
     
109. 
     All importers holding a valid IEC number may apply for a licence. Applications for import licences are made to the DGFT or to the regional licensing authority of the DGFT.³⁰ The requirements for filing applications for import licences are published in the Handbook of Procedures.³¹
     
110. 
     Licences are valid for 18 months and may be revalidated for six months by the licensing authority on merit; the imported material must be used by the importer and cannot be sold.
     
111. 
     The DGFT or an authorized office may, in writing, refuse to grant, renew, or suspend a licence to import (or export) on specific grounds.³²
     
112. 
     Licence application fees vary according to the c.i.f. value of imports.³³ Fees are not refundable. The goods imported under a licence cannot be exported without the written permission of the DGFT.
     
113. 
     On 28 November 2014, India eliminated import restrictions on gold (implemented in June and July 2013), which involved a requirement that 20% of imported gold be held in a bonded warehouse for export purposes (20:80 scheme), and that gold imports be allowed only to meet the genuine needs of the exporters of gold jewellery.³⁴
     

Chart 3.5 Import licensing by HS section, 2014-15

% of HS section

Source: WTO Secretariat calculations, based on online information taken from the Directorate of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

114. 
     Imports of certain goods such as cashew kernel (HS 08013210 and 08013230)³⁵, areca nuts (HS 0802 80)), and marbles (HS 25151100 and 25151210 – from 20 November 2014)³⁶ are subject to import restrictions depending on their import price (Table 3.9). These imports are restricted (i.e. subject to a licence) when the c.i.f. price is lower than the minimum import price.
     

Table 3.19 Items whose import is free, subject to minimum import price, 2014-15

HS code	Description	Minimum import price
0801.32.10	Cashew kernel, broken	Rs 288/kg
0801.32.20	Cashew kernel, whole	Rs 400/kg
0802.90.11	Betel nuts: whole	Rs 110/kg
0802.90.12	Betel nuts: split	Rs 110/kg
0802.90.13	Betel nuts: ground	Rs 110/kg
0802.90.19	Betel nuts: other than above	Rs 110/kg
2515.11.00	Crude or roughly trimmed marbles	Import policy of rough marbles and travertine blocks for the year 2014-15 has been notified with a quota of 0.8 million tonne and a minimum import price of US$325 per tonne.
2515.12.10	Marbles - merely cut, by sawing or otherwise, into blocks of a rectangular (including square) shape
4012.11.00	Retreaded tyres, of a kind used on motor cars, lorries, bigger size	US$175/unit
4012.12.00	Retreaded tyres: of a kind used on buses or lorries, vehicles and light commercial vehicles	US $175/unit
4012.13.00	Retreaded tyres: of a kind used on aircraft	US $175/unit
4012.20.10	Used pneumatic tyres: for buses, lorries, and earth moving equipment	US$175/unit
4012.20.20	Used pneumatic tyres: for passenger automobile vehicles	US$25/unit
6802.10.00 6802.21.10 6802.21.20 6802.21.90 6802.91.00 6802.92.00	Tiles, cubes, and similar articles Marble tiles Marble tiles Marble monumental or building stone Marble, travertine, and alabaster Other calcareous stone	Import permitted freely (maximum thickness of slab 20mm) provided c.i.f. value is US$60 and above per square metre
6802.23.10 6802.23.90 6802.29.00 6802.93.00	Granite blocks or tiles Other Other stone Granite	Import is free if c.i.f. value is US$80 and above per square metre
6810.11.10 6810.11.90 6810.19.10 6810.19.90 6810.91.00 6810.99.10 6810.99.90	Cement bricks Other building blocks and bricks Cement tiles for mosaic Other articles of cement Articles of cement: prefabricated structural components for building or civil engineering Concrete boulder Other articles of cement	US$50/kg

Source: Department of Commerce (2010), Schedule 1: Import Policy, Foreign Trade Policy 2009 2014, incorporating Annual Supplement, 23 August. Viewed at: http://dgft.gov.in/ and information provided by the Indian authorities.

3.1.8.19986  Import surveillance

1. 
   India does not maintain any mechanism to monitor imports of items that are considered to be sensitive; such a mechanism was discontinued by April 2012.³⁷
   

3.1.8.19987  Import quotas

1. 
   India maintains import quotas for marble and similar stones (HS 25151100 and 25151210)³⁸ and for sandalwood (HS 44039922). Quotas are established annually and administered on an MFN basis. There is no maximum limit to be allocated per applicant. Applications are examined upon receipt and assessed according to the criteria stated in the notifications and circulars issued by DGFT on a yearly basis.
   
2. 
   India may impose quantitative restrictions by notification in the Gazette of India on imports of goods that are deemed to cause serious injury to domestic industry, as a result of a safeguard investigation (section 3.1.8.2).³⁹ The authorities indicate that there were no such instances during 2011-14.
   

3.1.8.19988  Other import restrictions

1. 
   Certain items, including new motor vehicles and second-hand cars (less than three- years old⁴⁰) must be imported through specified ports (Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai for new vehicles and Mumbai for second-hand cars). Imported cars must meet certain technical regulations.⁴¹