The government on Tuesday extended export benefits under the RoDTEP scheme for one more year till June 2024, according to an official release.

The Scheme for Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) provides for refund of taxes, duties and levies that are incurred by exporters in the process of manufacturing and distribution of goods and are not being reimbursed under any other mechanism at the central, state or local levels.

The scheme is operational since September 2021.

“The RoDTEP support which was notified till 30th September 2023 is now being extended till 30th June 2024 at the same rates to the existing export items,” the commerce ministry said in the release.

It will help the exporting community to negotiate contracts in the present international environment on better terms.

The RoDTEP Committee has again been constituted in the Department of Revenue to review and recommend the ceiling rates under the RoDTEP Scheme for different export sectors, it said.

The committee held its first interaction on Tuesday here with the EPCs/Chamber of Commerce and discussed the methodology and other issues relating to the scheme and its implementation.

The EPCs (export promotion councils) in their observations emphasised the
need for enhancing the
RoDTEP budget allocation and for higher rates to be made available to all export items
to help them secure greater market access abroad.

This scheme is a replacement for the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) which ended last year.

At present, over 10,342 export items get the RoDTEP benefits.

The incentive is paid in the form of transferable duty credit scrip which can be used to pay import duties or sold in the market by exporters.

From last year, exports started facing headwinds due to global uncertainties and disruption in supply chains due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Exports declined 6.86 per cent to $34.48 billion in August against $37.02 billion in the same month last year, government data showed .

Imports declined 5.23 per cent to $58.64 billion against $61.88 billion in August 2022.

The country’s trade deficit in the month stood at $24.16 billion.

During April-August this fiscal, exports contracted 11.9 per cent to $172.95 billion.

Imports during the five-month period fell 12 per cent to $271.83 billion.