Provide benefits under RoSCTL in cash, urge exporters

18 June 2022, Mumbai:

Garment exporters have appealed to the Union government to provide benefits under the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) in cash directly to the exporters and not as scrips.

Vijay Jindal, President, Garment Exporters and Manufacturers Association, said, the RoSCTL scheme provides rebate against the taxes, levies, etc. that are already paid by the exporters on the inputs.

These rebate has been converted into scrips that are tradable i.e. exporters can sell scrips to the importers and importers, in turn, can pay import duty with these purchased scrips as an alternative to cash import duty payments.

While it was in discount earlier also, now the discount has gone up from 3 per cent to about 20 per cent on the scrips. This discounting of scrips benefits importers, who are taking undue advantage at the cost of exporters.He, therefore, urged the government to restart cash reimbursement

Harish Ahuja, Executive Member, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), adds, “At present, demand for such scrips is very less as exporters are finding it difficult to find enough importers who can buy the scrips obtained under the RoSCTL scheme.

Lack of demand means that importers offer to buy scrips only at a steep discount of up to 20 per cent. If not addressed, India may lose its edge in global textile markets.