To boost exports through e-commerce, the government on Friday extended the tax remission benefits available to other exporters for shipments made by courier.
The schemes that e-commerce exports through courier will be eligible for are Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP), Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) and Drawback.
The decision was conveyed to exporters at the meeting of the Board of Trade in Mumbai on Friday by officials from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.
RoDTEP provides refunds of central, state, and local taxes and levies on exported products that are not covered by other schemes. The scheme covers a range of sectors, including marine, leather, gems and jewellery, agriculture, electrical, electronics, automobiles, machinery, and plastics.
The RoSCTL scheme covers the entire textile value chain, including apparel and made-ups. However, RoDTEP is not available for apparel and made-ups that are covered under RoSCTL. Drawback scheme refunds customs and central excise duties charged in imported and excisable material when used as inputs for goods to be exported,
“Plans to extend these benefits to postal route exports are also in the pipeline, creating a more equitable environment for E-Commerce exporters utilising the courier and postal mode,”the officials of the CBIC said at the meeting of BoT.
Government is planning a big push for e–commerce exports which now stand at around $ 5 billion. One of the ideas where the work is on is setting up e-commerce export hubs.
As per estimates, e-commerce exports potential for India is in the range of $200-300 billion by 2030. Global e-commerce exports are expected to touch $2 trillion in 2030 from $800 billion now.
As part of ease of doing business reforms for exporters, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and its public sector enterprise under its administrative control, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) launched two portals that will provide online access to all the services and resolution of grievances.
The Jan Sunwai Portal – launched at the first meeting of the BoT in the third term of the Narandra Modi government – will be run by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade is a video conference-based virtual interface to streamline communication between stakeholders authorities, addressing trade and industry-related issues.
“These initiatives are part of the 100-day agenda of the government,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said at a press conference after the meeting of the BoT
“The portal will offer on-demand video conferencing services, in addition to fixed video conference links for regular, scheduled interactions. The portal’s accessibility extends across various offices and autonomous bodies under the Department of Commerce like DGFT, Coffee Board, Tea Board, Spices Board, Rubber Board,Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, Marine Products Export Development Authority, and Export Inspection Corporation,” Goyal said.
The minister also inaugurated ECGC’s new online service portal, alongside a revamped in-house SMILE-ERP system.
“All facilities of the ECGC whether it is claims or information about policies will be available online. Here too the video conferencing facility will be available. If a form has to be filled or a claim has to be filed or credit support is needed ECGC will be ready to help,” he added.
“MSMEs whose credit limit is Rs 80 crore, if they suffer any losses or face payment default the ECGC has started giving 90% insurance cover from July. It eases the process for exporters for getting bank loans. It also reduced the cost of these loans as with insurance the loan becomes a AA-rated credit,” the minister said. This cover is available for all exporters barring those in the gems and jewellery sector.
Other issues that were discussed at the meeting include quality, organic and natural farming, mutual recognition agreements that India is going to sign with various countries to facilitate trade. The Free Trade Agreements too came up for discussion at the meeting that also saw participation of the state governments
From: financialexpress
Financial News
