Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

DGFT Notification No. 03/2026-27, issued 2 April 2026 under sections 3 and 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 and the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, reclassifies several Chapter 71 tariff lines — covering silver-clad base metals (ITC-HS 71090000), articles of precious metals (HS 7114–7115 series), and non-legal-tender coins — from "Free" to "Restricted" import status, requiring DGFT prior authorisation for each import consignment. The notification simultaneously liberalises certain platinum semi-finished forms (HS 7110 series) from Restricted to Free, except platinum alloys containing more than 1% gold content. No transitional relief applies: prior contracts, letters of credit, advance payments, or shipments in transit are not exempted, making the restriction immediately operative. EOU and SEZ units are carved out provided imported goods are not diverted into the Domestic Tariff Area.

DGFT Notification No. 58/2025-26, issued 5 February 2026 under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992, reclassifies imports of articles of platinum under ITC (HS) code 71141920 from "Free" to "Restricted", bringing them under Policy Condition No. 6 of Chapter 71 of the ITC (HS). Importers must obtain the requisite DGFT authorisation before undertaking such imports. Re-import of Indian-made platinum articles previously exported for exhibitions/export-promotion tours, and re-import of goods sent abroad for repair, remain "Free" and are unaffected by the change.

The Government of India, exercising powers under Section 11C of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, amended the First Schedule on 29 January 2026 to add "Coking Coal" explicitly to Part A (Coal expanded to "Coal, including Coking Coal") and to Part D (Critical and Strategic Minerals list). The designation transfers exclusive auction authority over coking coal mining blocks from state governments to the Central Government and extends the existing EIA public-consultation exemption — previously applicable to atomic and strategic minerals — to coking coal projects. India imports approximately 80% of its coking coal requirements (primarily from Australia, the United States, Russia, and Canada); the classification is the statutory pathway to fast-track domestic exploration, NMEDT funding eligibility, and KABIL-backed overseas-acquisition mandates for coking coal.

Pakistan's Directorate General of Customs Valuation (Karachi), acting under the Federal Board of Revenue, issued Valuation Ruling No. 2029/2025 on 3 December 2025, fixing new minimum customs values for imports of eleven aroma and aromatic chemicals used in perfumes and cosmetics — Citronellol, Coumarin, Dihydro Myrcenol, Eugenol, Geraniol, Linalool, Musk Ambrette, Sandela, Eucalyptus Oil, Peppermint Oil, and Vanillin — sourced primarily from China. The ruling was triggered by representations from domestic importer M/s Franscent (Pvt.) Ltd., which alleged systematic under-invoicing of these products, and was determined under Section 25(9) read with Sections 25(5) and 25(6) of the Customs Act, 1969, after the Directorate found transaction-value and comparable-goods valuation methods unworkable due to sparse and inconsistent import data. Clearance Collectorates were instructed to enforce accurate CAS-number and chemical-identity declarations to prevent misclassification against the new benchmark values.

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 via Gazette notification G.S.R. 846(E) on 13 November 2025, operationalising the 2023 DPDP Act. The Rules introduce a "negative list" cross-border personal-data transfer regime under Rule 14, verifiable parental consent, breach-notification windows, and tiered penalties up to INR 250 crore. Implementation is phased: Data Protection Board provisions in force on notification, Consent Manager rules from 13 Nov 2026, and core data-fiduciary / cross-border-transfer obligations from 13 May 2027.

India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT Notification No. 40/2025-26, dated 10 October 2025) made pre-import registration mandatory, effective 1 November 2025, for a defined list of solar and wind energy components under the Renewable Energy Equipment Import Monitoring System (REEIMS), run by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Covered items include toughened safety glass and photovoltaic cells/modules (solar) and towers, bearing housings, gearboxes and wind-powered generating sets (wind), identified by specific HS codes. Import policy for these items remains "Free" — registration is an administrative monitoring/traceability layer, not a quota, licence-refusal power, or duty, but it creates a lead-time and port-specific compliance gate on renewable-hardware imports.

The MoEFCC Impact Assessment Division issued an Office Memorandum on 8 September 2025 categorically exempting all mining projects involving atomic minerals (uranium, thorium and the 12 minerals under the Atomic Energy Act 1962), the 30 critical minerals notified by the Ministry of Mines on 28 June 2023, and separately designated strategic minerals from the mandatory public-consultation stage (para 7(i)) of the EIA Notification 2006, invoking the existing national-defence and strategic-considerations clause. Exempted projects will instead undergo comprehensive appraisal by the relevant Sectoral Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC/EAC) at the central level regardless of project size, bypassing the standard Category-A/B thresholding architecture. The measure was issued in response to formal requests from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), and directly accelerates the approval pipeline for the National Critical Mineral Mission (Rs 34,300 crore, 2025-2031).

DGFT Notification No. 19/2025-26, issued 17 June 2025 under sections 3 and 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 and the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, reclassifies all of Customs Tariff Heading (CTH) 2843 — colloidal precious metals, inorganic or organic compounds of precious metals, and amalgams of precious metals, covering gold, silver, platinum, rhodium and palladium forms (ITC-HS codes including 28431010 colloidal gold, 28431020 colloidal silver, 28432100 silver nitrate, 28433000 gold compounds, 28439011 sodium aurous thiosulphate, 28439012 noble-metal solutions, and 28439020 amalgams) — from "Free" to "Restricted" import status. Importers now require DGFT prior authorisation per consignment; the stated purpose is to close a route for importing gold disguised as chemical compounds. Genuine industrial and manufacturing users (electronics, electrical, and specialised chemical industries) remain able to import against an authorisation, so the measure targets bullion arbitrage rather than input-supply continuity. It was issued the same day as, and as a companion measure to, DGFT Notification No. 18/2025-26 (gold-bearing PGM alloys, CTH 7110), filed separately as 2025-06-17-india-dgft-pgm-alloys-import-licensing.

DGFT Notification No. 18/2025-26, issued 17 June 2025 under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992, reclassifies alloys of palladium, rhodium, and iridium containing more than 1% gold by weight (ITC-HS codes 71102100, 71102900, 71103100, 71103900, 71104100, 71104900) from "Free" to "Restricted" import status, requiring DGFT prior authorisation per consignment. Unwrought or powder-form palladium, rhodium, and iridium below the 1% gold threshold remain freely importable. The measure extends an earlier platinum-alloy restriction (Notification No. 60/2024-25, 5 March 2025) to the full Customs Tariff Heading 7110 at the 4-digit level, closing a route for importing gold in disguised alloy form.

India's Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024 (Act No. 15 of 2024) repeals the 2% Equalisation Levy on e-commerce supplies and services by non-resident operators (§165A of the Finance Act 2016, introduced 2020), with effect from 1 August 2024. The repeal removes a long-standing US trade irritant — the USTR had found the 2% levy unreasonable under a Section 301 investigation, and India agreed in October 2021 to remove it as part of a multilateral OECD Pillar 1 commitment, formally implemented here three years later. The residual 6% Equalisation Levy on digital advertising under §165 (in force since 2016) was not touched by this Act and remained in force until its own repeal effective 1 April 2025 via a subsequent Finance Act.

Act No. 22 of 1992 is the foundational statute of India's modern foreign trade policy regime, receiving Presidential assent on 7 August 1992 with substantive provisions deemed in force retroactively from 19 June 1992. It replaced the restrictive Import and Export (Control) Act, 1947 — India's colonial-era command-economy trade framework — marking the 1991-92 economic liberalisation break and transitioning the state from direct import/export control to a facilitation-and-regulation model. The Act establishes the office of the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) as the principal administrative authority and empowers the Central Government to formulate, notify, and amend the Foreign Trade Policy; every DGFT export-import notification, SCOMET strategic-goods export control list update, port restriction, quantitative restriction, and agricultural export quota/ban operates as a delegation from this parent statute.