Exporters can take benefit under MEIS scheme till Dec 31: DGFT

The country's exporters will get the benefit of the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) till December 31, said Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi on Saturday.

"The exporters from the country can take the benefits under the MEIS scheme till December 31. Thereafter, a new scheme which will compensate them more than the existing scheme will come into force," Chaturvedi told ANI here.

The MEIS scheme was implemented by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government in its first term to offset infrastructural inefficiencies and the associated costs of exporting products produced in India by giving special emphasis on those which are of India's export interest and have the capability to generate employment and enhance India's competitiveness in the world market.

Chaturvedi added that an additional insurance cover will be provided to exporters and at the same time increase in insurance coverage from 60 per cent to 90 per cent by the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) will also provide much-needed respite to the bankers.

"ECGC used to provide insurance for 60 per cent of the bank credit, but under the new scheme, it will be increased to 90 per cent which will comfort the banks and enable them to give more loans. Currently, there had been a decline in the export credit extended to the exporters," he said.

Chaturvedi also denied the reports of any slowdown in exports during the trimester from April to August and added that the new scheme for exporters will have a similar revenue implication as to the current one.

He added that the priority sector norms will be reviewed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which will lead to additional lending of Rs 30,000 crore to exporters in the coming days.

"For the benefit of exporters, banks like SBI will also give them loans in dollars at their branches located in foreign nations. This will also benefit the RBI and the banks who will be able to provide money to MSMEs and other companies. The Commerce Minister has also hinted the banks to provide loans at lowered interest rates," he said.

Adequate Foreign Currency resources will be made available at a reasonable cost to Banks with support of RBI. This will support the expansion of export credit at lower rates.

This intervention along with the enhanced and affordable ECGC cover will ensure that foreign and Rupee export credit interest rates will be below 4% and 8% respectively and increase credit availability.

"Apart from all these, exporters also used to face difficulties in getting the refund of the input tax credit as it was a manual process till date but now that the process has been made completely online it will be refunded at the earliest," he added.