Amitabh Kant, CEO of government policy think tank NITI Aayog, on February 23 said the government was in the advanced stage of finalising the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) rates for all products.
"..the RoDTEP rates should be announced very shortly," Kant said speaking at virtual CEO Conclave at BioAsia 2021.
"RoDTEP will definitely be made applicable to pharmaceutical exports because it's about making exports, free from taxes," Kant said.
RoDTEP is a new scheme for exporters to get taxes and duties such as value-added tax, mandi tax, coal cess, electricity duties and the fuel used for transportation, which are non-recoverable under any other existing mechanism, reimbursed.
RoDTEP, which became applicable with effect from January 1, 2021, was formed to replace the existing Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). Under the MEIS regime, the government provided duty benefits at different rates depending on product and the country.
The government had to scrap MEIS as it wasn't compliant with the WTO regulations.
Pharma companies which were major beneficiaries of the scheme have been demanding that the government should quickly announce RoDTEP rates.
A committee, set up under former commerce secretary GK Pillai in late July last year, is in the process of finalising the RoDTEP rates for all products.
India exports pharmaceuticals worth over $20 billion annually.
The government has budgeted Rs 13,000 crore for RoDTEP to reimburse embedded levies paid on inputs consumed in exports in FY22. The present MEIS benefit varies from 2 percent to 5 percent, categorised on the basis of Country Group A, B, and C and MEIS Reward Rate in percentage.