The government is also likely to make all products, having input-output norms, eligible for the DEPB scheme in the new policy to be unveiled on March 31. The removal of the threshold limit would open the gates for small exporters to get the DEPB rates fixed for their products. Over 2,000 products are at present covered under the DEPB scheme.

Government sources said the finance ministry had agreed to the commerce ministry's proposal on removal of the threshold limit after initial reluctance. The finance ministry felt that besides resulting in a revenue loss, doing away with the Rs 20-crore limit would increase the workload of the customs department as hundreds of more products with small export value but involving thousands of exporters would have to be covered. However, the ministry finally gave its nod in favour of the proposal.

The industry and exporters have lobbied hard with the commerce ministry on this issue. In its Exim policy recommendations to the ministry, the Confederation of Indian Industry stated that the removal of the limit of would encourage export of new products.

While exporters would be happy with these changes in the policy, sources said that the finance ministry has not taken into account the revenue loss on granting fresh sops under a scheme, which is admittedly incompatible with the World Trade Organisation agreement.

Policy experts say that the government should also conduct a thorough review to see whether such schemes have helped in export growth or merely resulted in enrichment of individual exporters. The Exim Policy for the next fiscal is also expected to introduce a single window facility in the export promotion capital goods scheme for importing capital goods at five per cent duty by merging the present 10 per cent and zero per cent duty.