Duty drawback scheme extended to more export items

The government has rationalised the duty drawback scheme for exporters and brought more items under the scheme for tax refund to give a boost to merchandise exports from the country.

The government on Saturday notified the revised all industry rates of duty drawback, which will come into effect from 21 September.

"Apart from the rate changes, to assist exporters, a large number of rationalisation measures have also been undertaken to realign entries, provide rates on more items, better differentiate all industry rates for export products with higher duty incidence or to address classification issues on export products," a finance ministry statement said.

The decision to rationalise duty-drawback rates has been based on the recommendations of an expert committee headed by Saumitra Chaudhuri, member of the Planning Commission and the prime minister's economic advisory council.

The committee finalised the report on the basis of relevant data, including prevailing prices of inputs, rates of duty/tax and value of export goods and feedbacks received through interactions with export promotion councils and other stake holders.

The aim is ''to promote exports with fair and representative rebate of the incidence of customs and central excise duties and service tax related with the manufacture of export goods,'' according to the release.

''The government will continue to support exporters with substantial total drawback,'' the release said, adding that the committee's terms have been extended for another three months to expeditiously address exporters concerns.

Although India's exports are showing signs of improvement with export growth hitting a two-year high of 13 per cent in August, exports from the country continue to lag compared to its imports, mainly due to adverse global situation.