Ministries to meet on steel export duty for SEZs

"We had earlier taken up the issue with the Cabinet Secretary and a meeting in this regard will be shortly held with the Finance Ministry to resolve the issue," a senior Commerce Ministry official said today.     

Supporting the demand of industrial units in the SEZs, the Commerce Ministry has pointed out that the steel products, which enter into the tax free zones are not exported or sold in the domestic market. Rather, these are consumed within the SEZs to produce commodities for exports.     

There is no rationale to bring inputs utilised in the SEZs under the tax net, which have been developed for export products and exempted from all taxes, the official said.     

The CBEC on May 10 had levied export duty of 5-15 per cent on various iron and steel products, including on products entering the tax free zones.     

A senior Finance Ministry official had earlier said that the proposal to exempt steel items entering SEZs from export duty was under consideration of the tax division. But no decision has been taken so far in this regard.