The Gov­ern­ment has re­moved sev­er­al con­struc­tion-re­lat­ed ma­te­ri­als from the Open Gen­er­al Li­cence for ex­ports, tight­en­ing con­trols be­gin­ning from Jan­u­ary 1, 2026.

A le­gal no­tice is­sued on Christ­mas Day amends the Open Gen­er­al Li­cence first pub­lished in 1998, delet­ing a cat­e­go­ry cov­er­ing clays, crushed lime­stone, boul­ders, sand, grav­el, plas­ter­ing sand, por­cel­lan­ite, argillite, and oil sand.

The change means ex­porters will no longer be able to ship these ma­te­ri­als un­der the blan­ket ap­proval of the Open Gen­er­al Li­cence and will in­stead re­quire spe­cif­ic au­tho­ri­sa­tion un­der the Im­ports and Ex­ports Con­trol Reg­u­la­tions.

The amend­ment was made by Trade, In­vest­ment, and Tourism Min­is­ter Satyaka­ma Ma­haraj un­der pow­ers grant­ed by the Trade Or­di­nance and the Im­ports and Ex­ports Con­trol Reg­u­la­tions.

The new rules take ef­fect at the start of the new year and ap­ply to all ex­porters deal­ing in the af­fect­ed ma­te­ri­als. - Ke­jan Haynes