645.006/11–2445
The Commissioner in India ( Merrell ) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 4.]
Sir: As of interest to the Department and the Department of Commerce, I have the honor to quote below the text of a Press Note issued by the Government of India on November 23, 1945, regarding facilities for the import into India of capital goods under the capital goods orders registration scheme:
“With a view to facilitating early consideration of applications for registration of requirements of capital goods for the cotton textile industry, it has been decided that the Deputy Chief Controller of Imports, Bombay, who is the licensing authority for cotton textile machinery, millstores and component parts, should receive such applications on behalf of the Chief Controller of Imports, New Delhi.
“Applications for registration of such goods should, therefore, in future be addressed to the Deputy Chief Controller of Imports, Bombay, in the first instance, in the prescribed form.
“It has also been decided that imports of capital goods for stock and sale, whether for the requirements of the cotton textile industry or any other industry, will require registration only if the value of any of the individual units included in the stock order is Rs. 25,000 and over (or Rs. 10,000 and over in the case of machine tools), irrespective of the total value of the order.
“It has further been decided that, in future, when once an application has been accepted for registration, an import license will be issued as quickly as possible after issue of the Registration Certificate, from whatever country import has been registered and whatever the goods concerned. In other words, acceptance of registration carries with it automatically the right to an import licence.”
The Chief Controller of Imports had previously communicated to the Mission his decision that acceptance of registration of an order to import capital goods from abroad would automatically entitle the applicant to an import license, and in my despatch No. 312 of November 5, 1945,77 for example, I reported that the same policy would be applied to imports of machine tools. As far as the Mission is aware, however, the Press Note quoted above constitutes the first public statement by the Government of India regarding this policy.
Paragraph 3 of the Press Note is of interest in that it will permit, providing import licenses can be obtained, larger imports of capital goods for stock and sale. This constitutes, in the opinion of the Mission, a step towards the merging of the capital goods registration scheme in the normal import control system.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩