NEW DELHI: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Friday unveiled moves to
simplify
the regime for exporters in
special economic zones
, those with
export-oriented units
or using the advance authorisation scheme and provide benefits under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme.
While noting that goods
exports
may be marginally lower than last year despite “significantly better” growth in Feb, compared to Jan, driven by weak oil prices, he exhorted businesses to set an ambitious target for next financial year. “After 55% growth in two years, this was a year of consolidation. Next year, let’s go for an ambitious target,” he told export promotion councils.
Last year, India’s goods exports rose 7% to $451 billion, while services exports shot up 27% to $322 billion. Despite geo-political tension, overall exports will roughly be at last year’s level due to a slight decrease in goods exports and an increase in services exports, the minister said.
He announced a revamped Electronic Bank Realization Certificate (eBRC) scheme for exporters, which will reduce a lot of paperwork when it comes to getting export proceeds in their bank accounts. The new mechanism will be largely based on self-declaration and data will be transmitted electronically.
In addition, govt also decided to relax rules to exempt quality control orders on inputs used by EoUs and advance authorisation scheme beneficiaries for exports. The benefit will be available to textiles steel and DPIIT-administered inputs. The advance authorisation scheme allows business to import inputs duty free for goods that are meant for exports.
Goyal said the RoDTEP benefit will be available to EOUs and advance authorisation scheme from Monday, while for SEZs it is likely to be operationalised by April since there are some technical issues that are being fixed. The facility is currently available till Sept and a decision on its extension will be taken after a full budget is presented.
Director general foreign trade Santosh Sarangi also announced an outreach programme in districts for small artisans, handloom and handicraft and other sectors as part of govt’s efforts to boost e-commerce exports from the country.