The concession rates under Safta are higher for Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives than that of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, sources added.

The notifications were issued by the Indian Customs Department on June 30. A list of goods not eligible for benefits of Safta has also been notified.

The concession rates will be applicable in accordance with the Rules of Origin of goods under Safta agreement, said the sources.

However, Indian officials are concerned over media reports emanating from Pakistan that Islamabad is not ready to open up its market to India for 773 more items, which were previously placed in the positive list of goods it maintains bilaterally with New Delhi.

Under Safta, Pakistan had promised to offer preferential access to 4,800 items from all SAARC members and restrict only 1183 items that were specified in the negative list of goods.

However, Pakistan is yet to communicate its decision officially to restrict market access for the new items from India, Indian Commerce Secretary S N Menon said.

BIMSTEC deadline stalled
The BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) free trade pact featuring Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Thailand missed this year's July 1 deadline due to differences among member-countries over rules of origin of goods, sensitive list of goods and tariff liberalization schedule.

While India is in favour of 40 percent value addition and change in tariff heading criterion, Thailand, with whom India already has a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), wants 35 percent value addition without changing tariff heading, sources said.

Bangladesh sought a twin-criteria on the lines of Safta leading lower market access commitment for LDC countries.

Thailand is reluctant to approve 1,000 items on the negative list of goods submitted by India under BIMSTEC and it wants a shorter list.

The parties could not yet reach a consensus on how many items to be included in the tariff liberalization programme under the BIMSTEC FTA accord while the dispute settlement mechanism also got caught up in divergences of views, said the sources.

The BIMSTEC free trade pact was originally scheduled to be implemented in two phases. In the first fast phase, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka were to grant free access to selected goods from the LDCs between July this year and July next year.

In the second phase, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka would allow free market access to most of the goods from July 1, 2010.

Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives would implement the first phase by 2011 and the second phase from 2017.