63rd AGM of TEXPROCIL held in Mumbai on 26 September 2017

While appreciating the government for taking various steps like refund of state levies, continuing the duty drawback and so on, the Chairman of The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) Ujwal Lahoti in his speech at the 63rd Annual General Meeting of the Council requested the government to also address the issue of "Embedded Central / State Levies" which have not been subsumed under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and add to the costs of the exporter even after GST refunds are claimed.

He mentioned that with the present export promotion schemes like EPCG, Advance Authorisation Scheme, MEIS undergoing changes due to GST, trade is now witnessing a paradigm shift from an 'exemption regime' to a 'refund regime' in claiming export benefits, thereby leading to working capital/ liquidity crunch.

With the implementation of GST, Lahoti cautioned that there are some critical issues which need to be addressed by the Government on a priority basis in order to facilitate a smoother transition. He highlighted issues such as the inordinate delay in the refund of GST on exports and Bond / LUT for merchant exporters under GST.

He also urged the government to expedite the FTA with EU as exporters face stiff competition from countries that have preferential duties with the EU and are losing market share to them. As per a study done by Ernst Young it was estimated that 55 lakh jobs can be created if FTAs with EU, Australia and Canada are finalised.