RoDTEP ( Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products )
In the recent Budget 2020, the Government had proposed to introduce larger benefits for the exporters in the form of refund of many other duties and taxes paid by them other than those like GST, Drawback etc. It is understood that the said proposal is based on the Prime Minister’s intention to boost the exports in the country.
Consequent to the proposal in the Budget, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has given its nod for introducing a new Scheme RoDTEP. Under this scheme a mechanism worked be worked out to sanction refund of the duties and taxes paid by an exporter to various other Ministries in the Government. In order to have a unified system in place for the sanction of the said refunds, the Inter-Ministerial Committee will decide on the rates and items of reimbursements of taxes and duties. Refund under this Scheme will be in the form of transfer of duty credit/electronic scrip, which will be issued to the exporters and will be maintained in the Electronic Ledger. The entire scheme will be on end-to-end digitization.
The salient features of this Scheme are slated to be as follows:
1) Though some of the taxes paid are refunded, certain other taxes or duties such as those paid on electricity, fuels, etc., were out of the ambit of this refund. This is now proposed to be included in the refund which will now make it more comprehensive refunds that is likely to boost the exports of this country
2) The sequence of introduction, prioritization of the sectors, degree of benefits to be extended on various items within the rates fixed by the Committee would be decided and notified by the Department of Commerce
3) The refund would be as a percentage on the FOB value
4) Audit, with an IT based Risk Management System, would be put in and would physically verify the records of the exporter
5) As and when the rates under RoDTEP are announced for a tariff item or product, the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS for short) benefits for such tariff item would be discontinued.
The MEIS is slated to continue till 31st December 2020 and when RoDTEP is introduced for each item, the MEIS for the said tariff item or product would stand discontinued. So far the Committee has not yet fixed any such rates and the same is awaited.
