This course covers the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 notified on 31 March 2023 under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992, addressing the legal framework, structural organisation, and core provisions that every Customs Broker must understand to advise importers and exporters correctly — and that the CBLE tests both directly and as a cross-linkage with customs law.

The course opens with the legal basis of FTP 2023 — the powers of the Central Government under Section 5 of the FTDR Act 1992 to formulate and announce the Foreign Trade Policy, the role of the Director General of Foreign Trade as the administering authority, and the relationship between FTP provisions and customs enforcement through Section 11 of the Customs Act 1962. The ITC(HS) classification system — the India Trade Classification based on the Harmonised System — is explained as the foundational instrument through which import and export policy is applied at the tariff-heading level, and the distinction between Free, Restricted, Prohibited, and Canalised categories is treated as a core CBLE concept since it determines the documentary and authorisation requirements for any given import or export transaction.

The course then covers the key structural components of FTP 2023 — the General Provisions governing all importers and exporters, the Importer Exporter Code (IEC) as the mandatory business identifier, the conditions for IEC grant, modification, suspension, and cancellation, and the deemed IEC provisions for Government entities. The Merchandise Exports from India Scheme replacement by RoDTEP, the rationalisation of export incentives, and the new provisions introduced in FTP 2023 — including the Towns of Export Excellence, the District as Export Hub initiative, and the Amnesty Scheme for pending Export Obligation cases — are addressed as policy-level changes that CBLE may test in current-affairs format questions. The Handbook of Procedures 2023 as the operational companion to FTP 2023 is explained in terms of its legal status and how it governs the procedural aspects of scheme administration that the FTP itself does not prescribe. The cross-linkages between FTP 2023 and customs law — how an import requiring an authorisation under FTP becomes conditionally prohibited under Section 11 of the Customs Act, how ITC(HS) policy codes feed into the Bill of Entry filing process, and how DGFT authorisations are registered on ICEGATE before clearance — are treated as a consolidated interface map that CBLE regularly tests.