India on Saturday announced new port restrictions on import of select goods from Bangladesh, which include readymade garment (RMG), fruits and few other items through land ports.
The Indian Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry made the announcement on the day, reports The Economic Times.
This comes a month after Bangladesh halted yarn imports from India through land ports.
As per the new notification, the import of RMG from Bangladesh will now be allowed only through Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Nhava Sheva) container port in Mumbai and the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (SPMP) in Kolkata, and not via any land ports.
As a result, India has now limited Bangladeshi product imports to Kolkata and Mumbai seaports only.
The move comes after the government-initiated steps in March to ban the import of yarn through land ports to prevent misuse of the facility, as these ports lack the capacity to properly identify different categories of yarn, according to the Indian Ministry of Commerce.
For goods such as fruits, carbonated and fruit-flavored beverages, processed food items like snacks and baked goods, plastic and PVC finished goods, cotton and cotton yarn waste, dyes, plasticisers, granules, and wooden furniture, imports will not be allowed through land customs stations (LCSs) and integrated check posts (ICPs) in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, and at Changrabandha and Fulbari in West Bengal.
The restrictions, however, do not apply to the import of fish, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), edible oil, and crushed stone.
The DGFT said these changes are effective immediately and are being implemented through a revision in India’s import policy specific to Bangladesh.
Earlier, on April 9, India withdrew a transshipment facility that allowed Bangladesh to export goods to global destinations—excluding Nepal and Bhutan—via Indian ports and airports.
India had granted the transshipment facility to Bangladesh in June 2020, which had significantly benefited Bangladeshi exporters. Indian textile exporters had previously urged the government to reconsider this concession, citing growing competition.
