Duty incentives for apparel export withdrawn as tax rebate scheme launched

The commerce ministry on Thursday said it has rolled back duty incentives to apparel and made-ups exports due to the introduction of taxes and levies rebate scheme RoSCTL.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), an arm of the ministry, in a notification said that "on account of introduction of RoSCTL, MEIS for items of the apparel and made-ups sector for exports made with effective from March 7, 2019, stands withdrawn".

In March 2019, the government had approved the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) scheme for rebate of all state and central embedded levies for apparel and made-up textile segments, which would make shipments zero-rated, thereby boosting the country's competitiveness in export markets.

The ministry has rolled back incentives under the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS). In this, the government provides duty benefits depending on product and country. This scheme is inconsistent with the global trade rules of the World Trade Organization. Rewards under the scheme are payable as percentage of realised free-on-board value and, MEIS duty credit scrip can be transferred or used for payment of a number of duties, including the basic customs duty.

The directorate has also laid out a detailed procedure for availing benefits under the RoSCTL scheme.

An application for claiming rebate under this scheme shall be filed online using digital signature on DGFT's website, it said.

"The relevant shipping bills shall be linked with the online application by the exporter. A maximum of 50 shipping bills would be allowed to be attached in one single application by the exporter in the online module," it added.