Call to lift countervailing duty on imports

The Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA) has appealed to Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath, to recommend to the Finance Ministry to remove the four per cent countervailing duty on imports made under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme.

The TEA president, A Sakthivel, in his memorandum said it was being imposed on all products including capital goods imported under the EPCG scheme.

He said that the Textiles Committee Cess and Education Cess should be removed for textiles for the benefit of exporters. He emphasised that exporters should be exempted from the tax.

In a press release, Sakthivel said that under the Target Plus scheme. very few exporters were enjoying maximum benefits. Instead of this, he proposed that the same account of money might be given back to the exporters by way of reduction in income tax on an increase in exports.

He felt that the change would help maximum number of exporters get the benefit.

The TEA said that the import of furnace oil for captive power plants of apparel parks should be exempted from import duty.