Exporters and industry bodies pretend their problems related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) such as full exemptions, timely refund of duties and easier compliance to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The problems being faced by the exporters in seeking refunds after the implementation of the new indirect tax regime discussed with the finance minister Arun Jaitley and chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian in the recent meeting.
The Apex Body of Exporters, Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) is demanding for full exemptions of tax payments charged on inputs at the time of exporting. “Indian exporters are losing out to their competitors from such countries. Ab initio exemption from IGST may be provided against such Advance Authorisation/EPCG and EOU Scheme,” FIEO said in its presentation.
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FIEO also added that “Merchant exporters account for over 30 percent of total exports who usually work on thin margins of 2-4 percent. GST has made their costing haywire, particularly for products having higher GST rates, as they’ve to pay GST and seek a refund with a time lag.”
The Apex Body of Exporter is also requesting to the Finance Ministry for the refund of embedded taxes on the items kept out from GST. President Ganesh Gupta of FIEO said, “The availability of credit and cost of credit are the biggest challenges for the MSMEs, which have become more alarming as money is borrowed for payment of GST on exports.”
Particularly, the small exporters are facing problems in filing returns under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which enhance their compliance burden. The official said that “The minister heard our concerns and said certain issues are still settling down. He said it is too early to say what is the impact of GST as two months is a short period of time.”
Representative Members attended the meeting including GST Suvidha providers, Institute of Cost Accountants of India, CII and PHD Chambers, Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Officials of E-commerce Giant Amazon and Tally solutions also attended the meeting which was organized to address the issues aforementioned.