New Delhi, April 1 (IANS): The new five-year foreign trade policy (FTP) unveiled here on Wednesday will nudge procurement of capital goods from indigenous manufacturers under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme by reducing specific export obligation to 75 percent of the normal export obligation.

The new FTP was unveiled by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman,

According to the government, this will promote the domestic capital goods manufacturing industry. Such flexibility will help exporters develop their productive capacities for both local and global consumption.

Measures have also been taken to boost to exports of defence and hi-tech items.

At the same time e-Commerce exports of handloom products, books/periodicals, leather footwear, toys and customized fashion garments through courier or foreign post office would also be able to get benefit of Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) (for values upto Rs.25,000).

These measures would not only capitalize on India's strength in these areas and increase exports but also provide employment.

The FTP 2015-20 has introduced two new schemes - MEIS for export of specified goods to specified markets and Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) for increasing exports of notified services in the place of several schemes.

According to Sitharaman, though exports from special economic zones (SEZ) had seen phenomenal growth, significantly higher than the country's overall export growth, this had been facing several challenges in recent times.

To boost exports from SEZs, the government has now decided to extend the benefits of MEIS and SEIS to units located in SEZs. It is hoped that this measure will give a new impetus to development and growth of SEZs in the country.

Trade facilitation and enhancing the ease of doing business are the other major focus areas in this new FTP. One of the major objective of new FTP is to move towards paperless working in 24x7 environment.