The Centre will clear all arrears under various export incentive schemes to help exporters address their liquidity concerns. Towards this, Rs 56,027 crore will be released by the government in the current fiscal, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.

       This includes claims pertaining to merchandise exports from India scheme (MEIS), services exports from India scheme (SEIS), rebate of state levies (RoSL), rebate of state and central taxes and levies (RoSCTL), other scrip based schemes related to post policies. Clearing past dues has been a long-standing demand from exporters to help them maintain their cash flows.

       Pending tax refunds under remission of duties and taxes on exported products (RoDTEP) scheme, which replaced MEIS scheme on January 1 for exports made during January-March quarter of 2020-21 will be cleared. Similarly, dues under the RoSCTL scheme that is aimed at supporting the textile sector, will also be cleared for the last quarter of the previous financial year.

       The move is expected to benefit 45,000 exporters, of which about 98 per cent are small exporters in the micro small and medium enterprise (MSME) category. The development comes at a time when there has been a recovery in key western markets, which has resulted in consistent rise in demand for goods from India.

       “With these measures, our exporters will have a level playing field to compete with global players and help achieve aggressive targets that have been set...I am confident that today’s decision will help us further speed up our exports,” Goyal told reporters.

       “This decision to clear all pending export incentives within this financial year, will lead to even more rapid export growth in coming months,” an official statement said.

       Currently, dues from the MEIS scheme is Rs 33,010 crore, Rs 10,002 crore under the SEIS scheme, Rs 5,286 crore for RoSCTL, Rs 330 crore for RoSL, and Rs 2,568 crore under RoDTEP. Other legacy schemes such as Target Plus, among other will amount to Rs 4,831 crore. The amount that will be refunded is over and above duty remission of Rs 12,454 crore for the RoDTEP scheme and Rs 6,946 crore for RoSCTL scheme announced over the last two months for 2021-22.

       For merchandise exports, all sectors covered under MEIS, such as pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, engineering, chemicals, fisheries, agriculture and allied sectors, auto and auto components would be able to claim benefits for exports made in earlier years.

       Service sector exporters, including those in the travel, tourism and hospitality segments will be able to claim SEIS benefits for 2019-2020, for which Rs 2,061 crore has been provisioned. “The SEIS for FY 2019-20 with certain revisions in service categories and rates is being notified. This support would have a multiplier effect and spur employment generation,” the statement said.

       “The apparel sector, which is a major labour-intensive sector, would get past arrears under RoSCTL and RoSL, and all stakeholders in the interconnected supply chains would be strengthened to meet the festive season demand in international markets,” it added.

       Exporters will have to claim the refund relating to earlier years by 31 December 2021, beyond which they will become time barred. Towards this, an online portal will also be enabled shortly to accept MEIS and other scrip based applications. It will be integrated with a mechanism set up by finance ministry to monitor provisioning and disbursement of the export incentives under a budgetary framework.

       FIEO President A Sakthivel said that such a move will help the sector in meeting the liquidity concerns and maintaining cash flow of the exports sector thereby further facilitating in addressing the export demand in the international market.

       “Benefits to be disbursed to over 45,000 exporters, specially those from the MSME sector has come as a booster dose for them as it would help them to be able to complete their booked order more efficiently,” Sakthivel said.