Govt to extend RoDTEP benefits to e-commerce exports: Piyush Goyal

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that the government has decided to extend the benefits of the export-boosting scheme Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) to e-commerce exports.

The RoDTEP scheme, which came into effect three years ago, refunds the embedded non-creditable central, state, and local levies paid on inputs to exporters.

'Right now, e-commerce exporters are not getting RoDTEP benefits. We are going to notify that RoDTEP will be available for e-commerce, and for whatever IT enablement is required, the Commerce Ministry will do,' a senior government official said.

It is difficult to get an estimate of e-commerce exports because a considerable portion of e-commerce exports by large companies such as Amazon and Walmart are a part of merchandise exports. Taking into account postal and courier exports, India exports goods via e-commerce to the tune of $1 to $1.5 billion out of total $421 billion exports.