The Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia has said in a bid to boost India’s shipments, leading exporters and industry associations have sought incentives such as credit at affordable rates from the government. She added that Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) also raised certain issues related with Goods and Services Tax (GST) and urged the government to extend 5 percent benefit to the exporters of branded products.
In addition, the Commerce Secretary has said that exporters flagged the issue of facilitation of e- commerce trade from more number of ports and ‘how the refund process for the e-commerce would be treated under the new tax regime. She also said that many export promotion councils (EPCs) have sought additional support through the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), enhanced interest subvention. Therefore, she noted that many of the comments and inputs were focused on exports, which has started showing positive growth. Though, she said exporters would need support in order to continue to grow over the next few years. Under MEIS, the government provides duty benefits at 2 percent, 3 percent and 5 percent, depending upon the product and country.
Meanwhile, India’s merchandise exports grew by 8.32 percent to $24014.62 million in May 2017 on the back of robust performance by sectors such as petroleum, chemicals, engineering goods as well as gems and jewellery. However, the overall trade deficit shot up to nearly 30-month high of $13841.72 million in May as against $6272.90 million in the year-ago period, driven by a sharp uptick in gold imports.