EPCH members to submit memorandum to Govt demanding hike in RoDTEP rates for Handicrafts sector

New Delhi – 31^st August, 2021 – The much awaited Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) rates were announced by the Government and to be effective from 1^st January, 2021 as per the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Govt. of India Notification for various export products including handicrafts.

Raj Kumar Malhotra, Chairman – EPCH said “The RoDTEP rates, which were keenly awaited were not as per the expectations of the handicrafts exporters as the sector was expecting comparable rates (5-7%) with MEIS scheme, the rates offered are in the range of 0.01% to 2.4% for the handicrafts sector. He further added that the Council has already urged the Finance Minister as well as the Textiles, Commerce & Industry Minister to enhance the rates.

He further informed that since the RoDTEP rates offered are very low, a Memorandum Day is being organized on 1^st September, 2021 across various crafts clusters of the country to collectively put forward a representation for enhancing the RoDTEP rates for the handicrafts sector.  The handicrafts exporters at various clusters will submit a Memorandum to their Member of Parliament from the region, Mayor, District Magistrate etc. to forward their demand to the Government of India.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Director General-EPCH said, “The Government has urged the exporters to put in additional efforts to achieve the overall export target of US$ 400 billion in the year 2021-22 and EPCH is committed towards achieving its share of exports in India’s total exports. Handicrafts sector being the cottage sector of the Indian economy providing employment to over 7 million artisans including women folk and weaker sections of the society.  Despite the pandemic, the sector has been able to register a marginal growth of 1.62% and stands at Rs. 25,679 crores in the year 2020-21 which is a testament to the hard work and efforts put in by the handicrafts exporters in achieving growth despite all odds.”

The RoDTEP scheme would refund the embedded Central, State and local duties/taxes to exporters that were so far not being rebated/refunded, placing handicrafts exports at a disadvantage. The refund would be credited in an exporter’s ledger account with Customs and will be used to pay basic customs duty on imported goods. The credits can also be transferred to other importers.

The export figures for April-March of the current financial year 2020-21 are at Rs. 25679.98 crores (USD 3459.75 million) registering a marginal growth of 1.62 % (Rupee terms) and (-) 2.93 % (dollar terms) over the same period last year. However, the provisional figures for the April-July of the current financial year 2021-22 are at Rs. 7792.14crores (USD 1053.34 million) registering a growth of 62.38% (Rupee terms) and 66.07% (dollar terms).