Ministry of Commerce & Industry has undertaken targeted reforms to strengthen the functioning of Norms Committees (NCs) under Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), aimed at improving turnaround time, enabling early approvals, and enhancing transparency under the Advance Authorisation (AA) Scheme.
Background
DGFT administers the Advance Authorisation (AA) Scheme and the Duty-Free Import Authorisation (DFIA) Scheme under the Foreign Trade Policy, allowing duty-free import of inputs physically incorporated in export products.
Authorisations are generally issued against notified Standard Input Output Norms (SION). Where SION is unavailable, self-declared norms by applicants are examined by sector-specific Norms Committees.
Currently, seven Norms Committees are operational under DGFT, comprising technical authorities and domain experts from relevant Ministries and Departments.
Problem Identified
As of early February 2026, only 12 technical members were associated with the Committees (including just 5 serving Government officers), leading to increasing pendency due to overlapping responsibilities and capacity constraints.
Key Reforms Introduced
- Strengthening of Governance & Processes: Detailed guidelines issued for uniform functioning, including fortnightly fixed meeting schedules, prioritisation of long-pending cases, time-bound finalisation of meeting minutes, systematic monitoring of pendency and case ageing, and identification of recurring cases for conversion into SION.
- Augmentation of Technical Capacity: Line Ministries requested to nominate additional technical officers. 10 additional technical members nominated from various Ministries, increasing total Technical Authorities from 12 to 22.
- Special Disposal Drive: A special drive launched for expeditious disposal of pending applications, with cases taken up in chronological order to ensure transparency and fairness.
Significance
- 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.