The government is considering a proposal to extend the validity of duty remissions extended to exporters under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) scheme to two years from one .

Officials in the commerce ministry are discussing the issue with the finance ministry. They expressed optimism about finding a solution before the end of the current extended foreign trade policy term.

The government is also believed to be weighing the prospect of shortening the tenure of its foreign trade policy to 3 years or less from 5 years.

Exporters’ body FIEO and others have suggested that the government increase to two years the validity of the duty credit scrips issued under two popular input duty remission schemes and link the transferability of the scrips to the realisation of export payments to make it more useful for the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector.

The RoDTEP scheme — meant for manufactured products — and the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) — on garments and made-ups — remit the embedded taxes and input duties not covered by any other scheme through the issue of import duty credit scrips.