On October 31, the Central government revised all industry rates (AIRs) of duty drawback which comes into force on November 15. These AIRs have taken into account all the Central levies and enable exporters to get the refund of taxes so as to remain competitive in the global market.
Though the GST is likely to be implemented next year, the Duty Drawback Committee headed by Saumitra Chaudhuri has put in lot of efforts to get inputs from the industry/exporters and arrive at reasonable drawback rates for all export goods. Chairman of Southern India Mills Association (SIMA), M Senthil Kumar has thanked the prime minister and others for considering the inputs given by the Association for different textile products and marginally increasing the duty drawback rates and value caps in general.
The SIMA chairman has also thanked the Union Minister for Textiles, for convincing the ministry of commerce to enable the fixation of reasonable drawback rate for all products. Further, Kumar stated that the industry has been constantly appealing to the government to consider refunding the electricity tax and also the cross-subsidy surcharge levied on electricity for purchase under open access system to make the Indian textiles and clothing products competitive in the global market. The Indian textiles and clothing sector which has been under stress due to unhealthy competition in the global market and continuous drop in exports would now be in a position to improve its exports to a certain extent with the enhanced benefits and the special garment export package already announced by the government.
