Parliament Watch: India-US BTA push, EPFO relief, highway slowdown among key updates

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has urged the government to conclude the proposed India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) at the earliest, while seeking safeguards against future US tariff hikes.

"The committee recommends that the government conclude the proposed BTA at the earliest while ensuring that India's interests are adequately protected," the Standing Committee on Commerce said on Thursday.

It also recommended a review of the India-US trade relations in the interest of the country and its citizens, considering the recent US tariffs.


To ensure that the BTA is effective, the government should negotiate for complete exemption for India's key export products such as generic medicines, critical minerals and smartphones from any future unexpected US tariff increases, the panel said.

It suggested the commerce department prepare a time-bound roadmap to achieve the objectives of the Mission 500 initiative - which aims to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 - by promoting trade in goods and services, encouraging investments, enhancing cooperation in critical technologies, improving supply chain and addressing both tariff and non-tariff barriers faced by Indian exporters.

A win-win trade pact would benefit businesses in both countries as it would provide a stable and predictable trade environment, the panel said.

Highlighting that the pact should focus on reducing tariffs on engineering goods, auto components and other products related to the automotive sector as the removal of additional US tariffs on Indian exporters will improve India's competitiveness, it suggested protection to vulnerable small-scale industries from volatile tariff actions and localised financial buffers and export credit assistance programmes.

It also asked for the setting up of a special, fast-acting watch desk to track US customs audits in real time for Indian exporters to get instant warnings about any new import rules.

NH construction impacted

During the ongoing FY27, the pace of construction of national highways (NHs)has been marginally affected because of the short supply of bitumen triggered by the West Asia crisis, the government informed Parliament on Thursday.

EPFO eases claims filing

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has dispensed with the need of uploading an image of a cheque leaf or attested bank passbook while filing online claims from April, 2025 onwards, benefiting around seven crore members.

Road accidents at 79K+

The number of road accidents registered till July 31 of the current year stand at 79,746, with 33,953 fatalities and 92,307 injuries. The number of accidents in 2025 had fallen to 1,43,595 compared with 1,50,958 registered in 2024.

Energy stack pilot

Power distribution companies of Delhi, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai have been identified for the pilot implementation of the India Energy Stack, whose timeline for demonstration is FY27.