Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on Monday ruled out any differences with the finance ministry on certain provisions of the Foreign Trade Policy and said the Policy will be announced before April 10.
"There are no differences with the finance ministry but discussions are continuing on some issues. We will certainly announce it within the first ten days of April," he said when asked about the differences with finance ministry on the forthcoming policy.
While commerce ministry wants to dole out some sops such as tax exemptions to exporters to achieve the target of $150 billion exports by 2008-09, the finance ministry is concerned over the fiscal implications of tax sops.
The policy has not been delayed and would incorporate the final trade figures for 2004-05, which would be available after March 31, Nath said on the sidelines of India Infrastructure Summit at FICCI in New Delhi. "We were also focused on getting the Patents Bill passed first... and now the policy is being taken up," he added.
On the much-awaited SEZ Bill, he said the Ministry is grappling with some issues which would be resolved in the next one month. The Bill would be introduced in Parliament in the current session when it meets after the recess, he said.
Rejecting comparisons with China, Nath said India cannot follow the Chinese example as it might not work here.
"We need an SEZ law and we'll have it. But we need India-specific SEZs which could be different than those in China... in terms of funding requirements, institutional mechanisms and other parameters," he said.
© 2026