The Hindu Business Line : Plea to include exports to CIS nations for duty credit benefits

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New Delhi Feb. 24 FICCI has urged inclusion of Commonwealth of Independent States countries and trans-shipment exports in the eligibility criteria for duty credit benefit under the Focus Market Scheme.

In its memorandum on the Foreign Trade Policy to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), the chamber also sought for deletion of the condition under the scheme that benefits would be available only to exports made through Electronic Data Interchange Ports.

FICCI said CIS countries namely, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Dushnabe, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgystan and Turkmenistan should be included in the list of countries that qualify for duty credit benefits under the scheme. The chamber has argued that none of the regular shipping lines provide services to these countries since the shipping cost is very high.

Main objective

Since, the main objective of the scheme is to offset the high freight cost incurred by exporters to the notified countries, the case for including these countries under the scheme becomes relevant and important.

The scheme allows duty credit of 2.5 per cent of FOB (free-on-board) value of exports to countries, which are identified as focus markets by the Government. This will lead to promotion of exports to CIS countries, according to the chamber.

The chamber also noted that one of the important conditions under the scheme is that only exports made through direct shipping lines would be eligible for benefits while exports made through trans-shipment are not eligible for entitlement under the Scheme. This is a big constraint for exporters targeting countries like Tunisia and Morocco as there are no direct shipping lines to these countries.

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