India Inc on Tuesday said the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products rates will help in easing the liquidity and enhance the competitiveness of domestic exporters, and pitched for including other sectors like steel, chemicals and pharma in the scheme.
To boost exports, the government on Tuesday announced rates of tax refunds under the export promotion scheme RoDTEP for 8,555 products, such as marine goods, yarn, dairy items.
The government has set aside Rs 12,454 crore for refunds under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme for the current fiscal, a top official said.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President A Sakthivel said the commerce ministry should quickly upload the rates in the system so that exporters can generate their scrips instantly for utilising the benefits under the scheme.
He also urged the government to include pharma, chemicals, iron and steel under the RoDTEP scheme from January 1, 2021.
These sectors are not covered under the ambit of the scheme, rates for which were notified today.
"Since the rates are fixed based on the data furnished by the industry, which was also affected due to the pandemic, the rates may be reviewed if more comprehensive and updated data is furnished by the industry," he said.
Council for Leather Exports (CLE) Chairman Sanjay Leekha said that announcement of rates will boost export growth in the leather and footwear sector.
"A target of USD 5.9 billion has been set for leather and leather manufactures for 2021-22. Going by the current export trends, our industry is confident of achieving this target," Leekha said.
Tanushree Roy, Director- Indirect Tax, Nangia Andersen LLP, said that being a successor to the MEIS (merchandise export from India scheme), it is expected that the RoDTEP Scheme would help in boosting India's exports significantly.
Sharing similar views, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said that this would help the exporters to factor in the rates while finalising new orders and contracts and would go a long way in further boosting the exports of the country.
"Going forward, this scheme will make the Indian exporters more cost-competitive and create a level playing field for them in the international market," he said.
PHDCCI President Sanjay Aggarwal expressed hope that in future these rates will be revised to reflect the actual duty and taxes suffered by the industry and more and more sectors would be covered.
"Long-awaited RoDTEP rates and pending refunds were urgently needed as it will make it easier for exporters to calculate their costs and inputs," he said.
