NEW DELHI: The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), the apex body of the export industry, has asked the finance ministry to take a relook at some of the “harsh and draconian” provisions related to exporters in Budget 2021. The association has highlighted provisions such as those allowing confiscating of goods for wrongful claims as having a serious bearing on exports.
According to the Budget, a sub-section is proposed to be inserted in Section 113, which states that goods would be liable for confiscation if products entered for exportation under claims of remission or refund of any duty make a ‘wrongful claim’ in contravention of the Act.
“The word ‘wrongful claim’ is subject to various interpretations and will put exporters at the mercy of field formations even if the remission rates are wrongly calculated or dispute about classification of the product under a particular rate arises,” said FIEO president Sharad Kumar Saraf. He also demanded an immediate announcement of rates under the RoDTEP (remission of duties and taxes on export products) scheme since exporters are not able to finalise their contracts.
According to the FIEO, the Finance Bill has also amended the Section 16 of the IGST Act withdrawing the facility of exports on payment of IGST (Integrated Goods and Services Tax) as originally envisaged in the law. Most of the exporters were availing the IGST payment facility as the mechanism of refund was entirely seamless without any transaction cost, he claimed.
“If the IGST system was functioning seamlessly and was the preferred option for the exporters, there was no need to dispense with such option,” Saraf said, adding that if there are any challenges faced by the tax authorities, it should be discussed so that an amicable solution is found.
Exporters claim multitude of woes