Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Commerce & Industry

25-May-2012 15:08 IST

DGFT Notification to Help Areca Nut Growers

Replying to the concerns raised by the nut growers and other stakeholders, Director General of Foreign Trade, Dr Anup K Pujari has said that Public Notice No.112 issued on 15th May, 2012 (can be seen at http://164.100.9.245/Exim/2000/PN/PN12/pn11210.htm) is actually to help the Areca nut growers. This Public Notice concerns itself with only duty free imports of areca nut either on the basis of advance authorisation or DFIA. It may be noted that duty paid imports are not affected by this Public Notice.

Prior to issue of this Public Notice anyone could have imported areca nut under the duty free schemes. After the issue of this Public Notice the class of persons permitted to effect such imports would get limited to (a) actual users and (b) such importers only and only when the respective Standard Input Output Norms (SION) specifically includes areca nut as a permissible input. “Therefore, if areca nut is not specifically listed as a permissible input, traders and non-manufacturing units would not be permitted to import areca nut under Advance Authorisation and / or DFIA. It is not Government’s intention to cause any impediment to manufacturing units (actual users). But non manufacturing units would face a restriction as explained above” added Dr Pujari.

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DS/GK

Restriction on duty-free areca nut imports limits eligibility to actual users and SION-listed importers under advance programmes. Public Notice No.112 narrows eligibility for duty free areca nut imports under Advance Authorisation and DFIA to actual users or importers where SION expressly lists areca nut as a permissible input; duty paid imports are not affected. Traders and non manufacturing entities cannot access these duty free channels unless SION permits areca nut, while bona fide manufacturing users remain within scope.