Food to international flights to be exports

In order to make India a major refuelling stop for airlines, the government on Friday announced that supplies, such as food and beverages, to international flights will be treated as exports.

Such exports would be eligible for benefits under various export promotion schemes, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said, unveiling the Annual Supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy.

He said the incidence of unrebated and fringe benefit tax on exports would be factored in the various duty neutralisation and remission schemes.

The Minister also said that the advanced licensing scheme and duty free replenishment certificate scheme have been clubbed to launch a new scheme called duty free import authorisation scheme.