About Minimum Export Price:
- It is the price below which an exporter is not allowed to export the commodity from India.
- It is imposed in view of the rising domestic retail/wholesale price or production disruptions in the country.
- It is a kind of quantitative restriction to trade.
- The government fixes MEP for the selected commodities to arrest domestic price rises and augment domestic supply.
- This is intended to be imposed for short durations and is removed when situations change.
- The removal of MEP helps farmers/exporters realise better and remunerative prices.
- MEP was first implemented on basmati rice in FY11 to deter exports and is typically implemented to contain surging domestic prices because of production disruptions.
- Legal backing
- As per section 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development And Regulation) Act, 1992, the Central Government may, from time to time, formulate and announce, by notification in the Official Gazette, the export and import policy and may also, in the like manner, amend that policy.
