The country has come a long way since P Chidambaram abolished import licences for inputs and capital goods in the Import and Export Policy of 1992. Today, the number of items under licensing has come down to under 1,000; in three years, import licences will disappear forever if the government keeps its promise to WTO. It would mean an end to unnecessary, vexatious and graft-prone trade restrictions. But even as it has dismantled import licences, the government has opened new avenues of graft and delay in special import licences and duty-free import licences. The latter in particular have been a favourite of the bureaucracies in customs as well as DGFT.
The DEPB (duty entitlement pass book) was devised as a way of circumventing the obstruction of the two departments to exports, but for precisely that reason, both
