New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS): The Apparel Export Promotion Council sought key changes in 'Special Advance Authorisation' scheme for 'Ease of Doing Business' at the Board of Trade meeting presided over by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday.

"The 'Special Advance Authorisation' scheme is specifically meant for the apparel sector. AEPC has suggested issuance of 'Special Advance Authorisations' to the apparel sector on self declaration and self ratification basis," AEPC Chairman A. Sakthivel said at the virtual meeting called by BoT to seek suggestions on new Foreign Trade Policy.

"At present, the facility of self certification and self ratification, available under Advance Authorisation scheme to other sectors, is not available to the apparel sector. In cases where Standard Input-Output Norms (SION) are not there, exporters in the apparel sector have to wait for a longer period for getting SION fixed in the norms committee.

"So, for faster clearances of these cases, facilities of self certification and self ratification must be made available to the apparel sector as well," Sakthivel said.

As the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has also been extended to the apparel sector which requires huge capital investment, the council suggested changes in the 'Export Promotion Capital Goods' scheme to take care of the growing need of capital investment in the sector.

Besides, he recommended that the entire process of flagging an exporter as a "risky exporter" to removal of the flag and resumption of refunds should be completed within 30 days, and a protocol must be developed for transparent flow of information.

In many cases, the entire process takes more than a year impacting the exporter.

Furthermore, Sakthivel stressed on the need for addressing the issues of duty disadvantage in the overseas market through FTA.