In its latest move aimed at facilitating ease of doing business, the government has relaxed the norms for claiming duty benefits under the Merchandise Exports from India scheme (MEIS), by exempting merchandise exporters from mandatory submission of landing bills with immediate effect.
In the MEIS scheme, which was introduced in April, 2015 under the Foreign Trade Policy-incentivising merchandise exports, exporters earned duty credits at fixed rates of 2 per cent, 3 per cent and 5 per cent depending upon the product and country. Earlier, the benefit of MEIS was available where the exporter presents proof of landing the goods at the destination country. Such proof was not necessary where MEIS was available for export to all countries but was mandatory for the 2787 tariff lines, incentives for which were available only to limited countries.
Now Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a notification has said that MEIS Scheme which covers 5,012 lines (or products). 2787 lines required submission of proof of landing as reward was not available for all markets. Henceforth, landing certificate shall not be required under MEIS along the remaining 2787 tariff lines.
The government has taken various other measures tackling the difficulties exporters have had with the MEIS and the annual resource allocation under MEIS was enhanced from Rs18,000 crore to Rs 21,000 crore in October 2015. The government had also raised the duty drawback rates by two per cent for many sectors including engineering, marine and textiles.