Chennai: The Budget has proposed to refund exporters duties and taxes levied by Central, state and local governments. The Budget also assured to review Rules of Origin requirements in imports from countries enjoying Free Trade Agreement benefits.
The Budget also proposed to digitally refund exporters, duties and taxes levied at the Central, state and local levels, such as electricity duties and VAT on fuel used for transportation, which are not getting exempted or refunded under any other existing mechanism. This Scheme for Reversion of duties and taxes on exported products will be launched this year.
In order to achieve higher export credit disbursement a new scheme, NIRVIK is being launched, which provides for higher insurance coverage, reduction in premium for small exporters and simplified procedure for claim settlements.
“Under the NIRVIK scheme, the insurance guaranteed could cover up to 90 per cent of the principal and interest. This announcement by the government is expe-cted to address and mitigate both export finance and trade risk issues, the key challenges for MSME exporters,” said Pawan Gupta, founder of Connect2India.
Further, the government has observed that imports under Free Trade Agreements are on the rise. Undue claims of FTA benefits have posed threat to domestic industry.
Such imports require stringent checks. In this context, suitable provisions are being incorporated in the Customs Act and the government in the coming months shall review Rules of Origin requirements, particularly for certain sensitive items, so as ensure that FTAs are aligned to the conscious direction of our policy.
The provisions for checking dumping of goods and imports of subsidized goods are also being strengthened for ensuring a level playing field for domestic industry. The government also proposed to withdraw certain custom duty exemptions that have become outdated. Remaining custom duty exemptions shall be comprehensively reviewed by September, 2020.
Further, customs duty rates are being revised on electric vehicles, and parts of mobiles to encourage domestic manufacturing. The Budget also proposed to reduce basic customs duty on imports of news print and light-weight coated paper from 10 to 5 per cent.
