The Ministry of Commerce has released an additional 267 items from the import licence requirements, effective from September 1.
Each importer has to apply for an individual import licence for each item from the Ministry of Commerce. With the change in requirements, 267 of 4,405 import items will no longer require an individual licence. The newly liberalised items include rubber and its related materials, textiles, tin and aluminium related materials, electronics and accessories, recorders, computers and computer accessories, vehicle-related materials and cleaning materials, among others.
According to Khin Maung Lwin, Director of Ministry of Commerce, this is “the first step” of liberalisation for this fiscal year. He also added that they are working on next liberalisation but it will not be for all import items. Drugs and health-related materials, fertiliser and other materials which threaten local manufacturing will be left out from the liberalisation. In July, the Ministry introduced online registration for import licences for 50 items including agriculture products, constructional materials, commodity goods and garments as part of the Ministry’s “hundred day” plan. Online licence applications can be found submitted via myanmartradenet.com.mm.
