EPCH PRESENTS ITS CASE FOR RODTEP – SCHEME FOR REMISSION OF DUTIES AND TAXES ON EXPORTED PRODUCTS (RODTEP) IN HIGH LEVEL COMMITTEE MEETING OF GOVT. OF INDIA

NEW DELHI – 10th December’2020 – The Govt. of India has constituted the RoDTEP High Level Committee under Chairmanship of Shri G. K. Pillai, former Secretary to Govt. of India. The objective of such High Level Committee is to consider refund the duties/taxes/levies incurred by exporter during manufacturing process. To brief the contours of the Scheme and after discussion with the trade bodies and industry, the RoDTEP committee announces the rates, said Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Director General-EPCH.

Elaborating further, Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Director General-EPCH informed that the current MEIS scheme, which is not in compliance with WTO norms and rules and under the scheme all the taxes/duties/levies being charged at the Central/State/Local level will be reimbursed which are not currently refunded under any of the existing schemes but are incurred during manufacturing and distribution process, said Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Director General-EPCH.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Director General-EPCH further added that today in above High Level committee meeting headed by Shri G. K Pillai, former Secretary to Govt. of India met the members of Export Promotion Councils and to understand their manufacturing process, taxes and duties paid by them with reference to new RoDTEP scheme. The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) presented handicrafts member exporters case for RODTEP (Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products) to make Indian products cost-competitive and create a level playing field for them in the Global Market. He informed that the committee also interacted today with the exporters to take their feedback, said Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Director General-EPCH.

Shri Ravi K. Passi, Chairman-EPCH gave a brief overview to the RoDTEP committee highlighting the exports of handicrafts during the past seven months. The committee interacted with the leading member exporters from various crafts clusters like Mr. Tony Bansal, Firozabad, U.P. briefed about Glass artware industry, Mr. Rajat Asthana, Agra informed about Stoneware crafts of Agra, Mr. Kamal Soni, Vice-Chairman-II representing Moradabad cluster of Wood & Metal explained manufacturing process, taxes and duties incurred. Mr. K.L. Ramesh from Bangalore briefed the committee about Aggarbatti crafts. Other representatives from Moradabad were Shri. Neeraj Khanna, Member-COA, Shri Avdesh Aggarwal, General Secretary, Moradabad Handicraft Exporters Association, Moradabad (MHEA), Shri Satpal, leading exporters of Moradabad. Mr. Sunit Jain, Jaipur represented Home Textiles manufacturing process, taxes and duties, Mr. Hansaraj Baheti, Member-COA, Jodhpur, Mr. Arvind Kalani from Jodhpur, Mr. Rajesh Jain, New Delhi, and Mr. Vikas Gupta of Farrukhabad, said Shri Ravi K. Passi, Chairman-EPCH.
Mr. Ravi K. Passi, Chairman-EPCH further elaborated that in order to finalise the rates to be offered under RoDTEP scheme, the committee gave a patient hearing to the exporters of metalware, woodware, glassware, furniture, agarbathi, textiles handicrafts, stone ware etc.

The Handicrafts exports during the year 2019-20 was Rs. 25,270.14 crores crores and during 1st six months i.e April-September’2020-21 is Rs.9976.13 Crores and USD 1327.74 Million informed by Shri Rakesh Kumar, Director General – EPCH, said Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Director General-EPCH.