The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has welcomed the recent announcement by the DGFT of an amendment to the Handbook of Procedures that will make it permissible for exporters to submit self-attested copies of shipping bill instead of custom attested EP copy of shipping bill, which nominated agencies were insisting upon.rnrnSpeaking at the IGJA 2018 function held on December 18, 2019, the same day that the DGFT issued Public Notice No.48/2015-2020 announcing amendments in Para 4.68 (a) of Handbook of Procedures 2015-20, Pramod Kumar Agrawal, Chairman GJEPC, said, “The industry is pleased to note today’s announcement by DGFT. It is a big step towards ease of doing business.”rnrnAs per laid down procedures, in case of export of gold/silver/platinum jewellery and articles thereof, an exporter has to furnish some documents including copy of the shipping bill. Whereas previously, the exporter had to submit the E.P. copy, henceforth self-attested copy of exporter’s copy of the shipping bill will suffice.rnrnThe amendment comes after Council, during one of the meetings with DGFT and his team for review of Foreign Trade Policy brought their attention to the Circular No.55/2016-Customs dated 23rd November 2016 wherein it has been mentioned that printing of the Exchange Control copy and Export Promotion copy of the Shipping Bill is not required. As the provision was still prevalent in the FTP, the nominated agencies still used to insist for the same.rnrnResponding to the suggestion, DGFT decided to amend this document and issued the Public Notice notifying the same.rnrnThe Council also said that DGFT issued Notification No.36 /2015-2020 dated December 18, 2019 wherein amendments have been announced in import condition of gold and silver under Chapter 71 of ITC (HS) 2017, Schedule-I (Import Policy).rnrnNow import policy of gold in any form, other than monetary gold and silver in any form, is amended from Free to Restricted; import is allowed only through nominated agencies as notified by RBI (in case of banks) and DGFT (for other agencies).rnrnHowever, the Council noted that import under Advance Authorisation and supply of gold directly by the foreign buyers to exporter sunder Para 4.45 of FTP against export orders have been exempted from this provision.