The Government’s decision to extend the RoDTEP scheme by one year for exporters of Domestic Tariff Areas (DTA) and three months for Advance Authorisation (AA), Special Economic Zones (SEZ), and Export-Oriented Units (EOU) was welcomed by the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI). Additionally, the extension of the Interest Equalisation Scheme (IES) and the imposition of Minimum Import Price (MIP) on knitted fabric categories were also welcomed. Better textile trade balance and increased export competitiveness will result from these actions.
The goal of the RoDTEP programme is to offset the expenses associated with exporting goods by offering refunds for any unrefunded concealed federal, state, and local taxes, levies, and tariffs that are not covered by other programmes.
On the other hand, CITI has expressed dissatisfaction with the 0.1 per cent to 0.5 per cent drop in RoDTEP pricing for around 991 textile items. According to CITI Chairman Rakesh Mehra, the industry has been looking for an increase in the rates to maintain its competitiveness in the global market, therefore this cut is a setback.
“Although we are grateful that the Government decided to prolong the programme, we find the rate cut to be disappointing. RoDTEP rates for about 80 textile commodities have dropped by 0.1 per cent to 0.5 per cent for AA, SEZ, and EOU units for the top 100 textile commodities, which account for about 78 per cent of India’s total textile exports. In the meantime, pricing for DTA units have decreased by 0.1 per cent to 0.8 per cent for 88 items. This will definitely have an effect on India’s exports, particularly now that the industry is already dealing with a decline in worldwide demand,” according to Mehra.
In his remarks regarding the extension of RoDTEP, Mehra stressed how important and timely it is to reduce the financial pressures on Indian exporters by covering non-creditable taxes, tariffs, and levies. “The continuation of the RoDTEP scheme is essential to maintaining India’s export competitiveness, particularly in labour-intensive sectors like textiles and apparel, which are the backbone of our export economy,” Mehra added.
CITI requests a long-term extension of the scheme, which would act as a catalyst in achieving the industry’s ambitious export target of US $ 350 billion by 2030. The industry has been pleading with the Government to reconsider the upward revision of RoDTEP rates, which would provide the much-needed relief to sustain the growth of Indian textile exports.