Hike in duty refund rates to help exporters: FIEO

Hike in duty refund rates would help boost shipments of sectors such as engineering and garments, exporters body FIEO said today.
The government yesterday raised duty refund rates on a host of items, including iron, steel, garments and marine products, with a view to promote exports which are on a decline for the past 11 months.
"Increased customs rate of 2 per cent to certain engineering items will help the exporters to neutralise the impact of import duty hike in steel used for export production," Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) President S C Ralhan said in a statement.
Duty drawback is the refund of duties on imported inputs for export items.

The increase in rates for items like frozen shrimps, prawns, perfumed agarbatti, finished leather, industrial gloves, millmade fibre yarn/fabric, readymade garments and hand-tools would also help these sectors, he said.
However, he added that in the current situation of declining exports, exporters were expecting "better support".
"... The rates announced may not appear to be encouraging in majority of export sectors," he said.
Exports are on decline since December last year mainly due to global demand slowdown and slump in commodity prices.