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Industry representatives have made a case for inclusion of pharmaceuticals, chemicals and iron and steel sectors in the new input duty remission scheme for exporters, enhancement of remission rates and an incentive scheme for exports from labour-intensive sectors, in their meeting with Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday.
Goyal met senior representatives from major industry associations, industry bodies and traders’ groups, to discuss ways to increase industrial production and work towards the $400-billion export target set for the year and bigger targets, moving forward.
Future targets
The Minister said that it was time to reflect on how to achieve future targets. He pointed out that India’s average applied import tariff dropped to 15 per cent in 2020 from 17.6 per cent in 2019, which was the sharpest annual fall in about a decade and a half, and the applied tariffs were way below the bound rate of 50.8 per cent (permissible limit under the WTO). Goyal added that India was working in mission mode to achieve target of $400 billion merchandise exports in 2021-22.
“Exports touched a high of $35 billion in July 2021 and total exports in the first four months of the fiscal were around $130 billion. If the $400-billion target for the fiscal is to be reached, exports worth $35 billion are needed every month for the remaining eight months. This is ambitious but can be attempted if the industry and government works together,” an official said.
RoDTEP scheme
According to PHDCCI, the new Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme will encourage exports, but the remission rates were much lower than expected and with several constraints and value caps. “Therefore, we request that these rates should be revised to reflect the actual duty and taxes suffered by the industry and to cover more and more sectors along with exports made under schemes such EOUs, SEZs and bonded warehouses....,” it said in its presentation.
Industry body CII pointed out that while RoDTEP rates had been announced, it left out three critical sectors – pharmaceuticals, chemicals and a major part of engineering. These sectors need to be considered as they are important contributors to export revenue, it said.
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