The
Government of India has introduced Merchandise Exports from India Scheme
(MEIS) through the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-20 w.e.f. April 1, 2015. It
seeks to promote export of notified goods manufactured/ produced in India. MEIS
is a major export promotion scheme of GOI implemented by the Ministry of
Commerce and Industry. Details of the scheme are available at the website of
the Directorate General of Foreign Trade at http://dgft@gov.in.
Salient features of MEIS are as under :
i) MEIS
is result of major consolidation and simplification:
Earlier there were 5 different schemes for rewarding merchandise
exports with different kinds of duty scrips with varying conditions attached to
their use. Now all these schemes have been merged into a single scheme, namely
Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS).
ii) MEIS
incentive Rates :
Rewards
under MEIS are payable as a percentage ( 2, 3 or 5% ) of realized FOB value of
covered exports, by way of the MEIS duty credit scrip. The scrip can be
transferred or used for payment of a number of duties/taxes including the
customs / excise duty / service tax. Scrips and inputs imported under the
scrips are fully transferable. This has provided much flexibility to exporters.
Earlier schemes had many conditions attached with the scrips about their usage
and importability of items.
iii) Allocation
and Product Coverage:
At the time of
introduction on April 1, 2015, MEIS covered 4914 tariff lines. The product and
market coverage was worked out keeping in view the annual allocation of Rs
18000 Crore by Department of Revenue. In light of the major challenges being
faced by Indian exporters in the backdrop of the global economic slowdown,
Department of Commerce introduced increased support for export of various
products and included some additional items under the Merchandise Exports from
India Scheme (MEIS) through Public Notice 44 issued on 29th October,
2015. MEIS currently incentives total 5012 tariff lines. This enhanced the
estimated allocation to Rs. 21,000 Crore. Thereafter, as a measure of ease of
doing business and to reduce transaction cost, the requirement of landing
certificate for claiming MEIS has been dispensed with by giving global coverage
to 2787 lines which did not have such coverage earlier, vide Public Notice No.
6/2015-20 dated 4.5.2016, which raised the envisaged allocation to Rs. 22000/-
Crore per annum.
iv) Duty credit
scrips are freely transferable and usable for payment of custom duty,
excise duty and service tax
All scrips issued
under MEIS and the
goods imported against these scrips fully transferable.
v) Incentives to be
available for
SEZs
Incentives under MEIS are
available to units located in SEZs also.
The
reward/incentives provided by the Government makes the exporters competitive in
the international market including Europe, The United States of America and
Africa. These three markets are covered under the scheme for all notified 5012
tariff lines.
This information was given by the Commerce and Industry
Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
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MJPS