MEIS cap will not affect exporters: Piyush Goyal

Goyal said the trade defcit is reducing drastically and India’s share in the global trade is improving, and that the government is trying to generate more reliable and better trade data for improved planning and policy making.
New Delhi: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said that India’s exports and imports are doing well, and the capping of eport incentives under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) at Rs 2 crore will not affect 98% of the exporters who claim benet under the scheme.
In a meeting with export promotion councils, he also said that the ministry is taking up issues related to Special Economic Zones (SEZ) with the nance ministry and while certain sectors- which depend on discretionary spending- are under “severe stress”, India’s overall exports and imports are showing positive trends especially exports which are approaching last year’s levels. “The exports are approaching the last year’s levels, after making a sharp dip in April this year due to pandemic. Regarding imports, the positive thing is that the capital goods imports have not declined, and the reduction in imports has been seen mainly in crude, gold and fertilizers,” the ministry quoted Goyal in a statement.
As per the statement, Goyal added that the trade decit is reducing drastically and India’s share in the global trade is improving, and that the government is trying to generate more reliable and better trade data for improved planning and policy making.
The government has identied 24 focus manufacturing sectors which have the potential to expand, scale-up operations, improve quality, and lead enhancement of Indian share in global trade and value chain. These sectors have capacity to do import substitution and push exports,” he said, and called upon exporters to engage with the Steering Committee set up to promote Indian manufacturing.
Separately, the government has already announced Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) scheme for exporters to replace MEIS, and a committee has also been set upto determine the ceiling rates under the RoDTEP scheme. This new scheme would reimburse the embedded taxes and duties already incurred by exporters.