Import and export policy: free, restricted, prohibited

Whether you may trade a product at all is set by DGFT in ITC(HS), India's import and export policy for every 8-digit code. Schedule 1 is the import policy and Schedule 2 the export policy. The current edition is ITC(HS) 2022, which DGFT amends by notification. Each schedule also has general notes that apply across it.

Its first six digits match the HS code used worldwide, and India adds two more. These 8-digit codes follow the same system customs uses.

Duty and policy are separate questions. Duty comes from the Customs Tariff and CBIC's notifications; permission comes from DGFT. A product can pay little duty and still need a licence, or pay high duty and be completely free to import.

Each code's policy column shows one of four regimes:

• Free: you may import or export without a licence from DGFT, subject to any policy condition and to other laws.
• Restricted: you need a licence, which DGFT calls an authorisation.
• Prohibited: the goods may not be imported or exported. For exports, DGFT says a licence will not be given in the normal course.
• STE: only named state trading enterprises may import or export the goods, on the conditions in the Foreign Trade Policy.

DGFT's website lets you look up a code's policy directly, and DGFT publishes separate lists of restricted and prohibited items for imports and for exports. Strategic goods and technology on its SCOMET list need an export authorisation of their own.

Many codes carry a policy condition, in their own column or in the notes at the end of the chapter. DGFT's own guide says that column does not list every condition: other conditions and other laws can still apply.

Conditions take many forms. One recent kind is a minimum import price: on 30 September 2026, DGFT extended minimum import price conditions on certain items in Chapters 29 and 48.

For a restricted item, you apply online to DGFT headquarters for an import or export authorisation, with the documents its Handbook of Procedures lists. DGFT, or a regional authority it empowers, grants it, and may take advice from its EXIM Facilitation Committee, which brings in the technical authorities and ministries concerned.

• Unless it says otherwise, an import authorisation for a restricted item is valid for 18 months from issue, and an export authorisation for 24 months.
• An authorisation can name the port the goods must go through.
• Apply before you commit to a shipment, since how long a decision takes is not in your hands.

1. 1Find your exact 8-digit code.
2. 2Open Schedule 1 for an import or Schedule 2 for an export, and read the policy and the policy condition for that code.
3. 3Read the chapter's notes and the general notes to that schedule.
4. 4Check DGFT's notifications since the last update, because DGFT amends the policy by notification.
5. 5If the code is restricted, apply for an authorisation before you ship. If it is STE, deal through the named enterprise.