The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), on July 23, blocked the MEIS module from accepting new applications for shipping bills with let export order (LEO) beginning April 1, 2020, to limit the issuance of any more scrips.

The Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) seeks to make India’s products more competitive in the global markets.

The scheme provides incentives in the form of duty credit scrip to the exporter to compensate for his loss on payment of duties. The incentive is paid as percentage of the realised Free on Board (FOB) value (in free foreign exchange) for notified goods going to notified markets.

The Department of Revenue had allocated Rs 9,000 crore for MEIS during FY21. It recently asked the Commerce and Industry Ministry to “review MEIS rates and coverage so that the benefit outgo remained within the allocation of Rs 9,000 crore in this period and sought allocation accordingly”.

The Commerce and Industry Ministry had, in turn, urged the Finance Ministry to “re-consider” its decision to stick to the Rs 9,000-crore allocation.

The database for MEIS scrip issuance was checked and it has been found that as on July 20, MEIS scrips of a value of Rs 422.4 crore had already been issued to exporters for shipping bills with let export order from April 1 onwards, Praveen Kumar, Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade, said.

“Since allocated funds at this stage for MEIS for FY 21 stands at Rs 9,000 crore and any additional allocation has not been conveyed by DoR, the online MEIS module was blocked on July 23 from accepting new applications for shipping bills with LEO date April 1 onwards to limit the issuance of any more scrips, he said.

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