Can the government find measures to curb non-essential imports?

The government has repeatedly talked of measures to curb non-essential imports to bring down the trade deficit, which is primarily responsible for the high current account deficit. In some of the so-called essential item there is room to raise duties, but in many cases such as apples the import levy is already close to India’s commitment at the WTO and cannot be raised any further.



Imports can only be banned if there is a sudden surge, which is not the case. "Curbing imports is not going to help much. Rather the government should focus on exports, which have shown a pickup. Curbing gold imports was needed but that has also had negative implications," said DK Joshi, chief economist, Crisil.