WITH budgetary constraints limiting the prospects of new sops for exporters, this year’s annual supplement to the foreign trade policy will attempt to remove procedural impediments hampering operations. The commerce department has decided to take the finance ministry head on over unnecessary regulations perpetuating bureaucratic red-tape. It has demanded that the mandatory requirement that a customs inspector has to inspect a machinery imported under an incentive scheme on-site before production can start should be done away with. Its argument is that since there is already a bond provided by the exporter equal to the import duty waiver, the inspection could be done even after production starts. The scheme, known as the export promotion capital goods (EPCG) scheme, allows capital goods to be imported under a concessional import duty of 5% subject to export obligations. Speaking to ET, official sources said that the inspection requirement under the EPCG scheme was creating needless problems for the industry. Once a machinery is imported under the scheme and installed, the factory owners have to send word to the inspector.