Commerce Min aligns provisions of FTP with GST

The commerce ministry today aligned provisions of the foreign trade policy with the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which comes into effect from midnight.
As per the trade notice of the ministry, all imports including those by the exporters will attract GST.
Exporters, however, can seek refund of the taxes paid.
It said that duty credit scrips, issued under export incentive schemes - MEIS and SEIS - can not be used for payment of IGST and GST compensation cess in imports.
It also said that under the GST regime, no exemption from payment of integrated GST and compensation cess would be available for imports under Advance Authorisation.

"Importers would need to pay IGST and take input tax credit," the notice said.

For export oriented units (EOUs), it said they are allowed duty free imports of goods for their authorised operations.
In GST regime, it said, the import of goods covered under GST would be exempted from the whole of the duty of customs.
"For the indigenous procurement of goods covered under GST, the EOU will not get ab-initio exemptions. Such supplies would be on payment of CGST/SGST/UTGST/IGST. The taxes so paid will be neutralised by ITC (input tax credit)," the notice said.
It also said that the duty drawback would be limited to the refund of basic custom duty only.