India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met with exporters for the second time in a little less than two weeks. Topics of discussion included expeditious refund of duties, deferment of filing of GST returns for six months and expansion of the ambit of the composition scheme. The businessmen wanted to resolve problems arising from the implementation of the GST. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations said there should not be any tax burden on export sales and for imparting competitiveness.
“In absence of clear refund timelines, the new duty drawback rates notified on September 21 have added to the woes of exporting and thus effecting their order book position. It is suggested that the transition period of drawback may be extended beyond September 30, 2017 till December 31.” FIEO President Ganesh Gupta said, “The minister gave a sympathetic hearing to our concerns and assured all possible help. He has taken all our points positively.”
The organisation also stressed on exemption from GST for merchant exporters, immediate start of the refund process with exporters facing liquidity issues and allowing export benefit scrips for payment of IGST and CGST. Gupta said, “Small exporters are particularly hit with GST as they have to borrow money to pay GST. Availability and the cost of credit is adversely impacting them.” Industry representatives also brought up matters of compliance on which Jaitley prompted suggestions to improve the GST implementations.
Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya said the sector faces a huge problem as exports decline. They also demanded exemption from Integrated GST (IGST) on procurement of precious metals from nominated agencies for the purpose of manufacturing and export of jewellery. He said, “Small businesses are getting impacted more. Some have cut their productions also. We have raised the issue of compliance. We got a positive response from the minister. They would tabulate our demands and put before the GST Council.” Satwinder Singh, council member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India said concerns related to reverse charge mechanism and refund were raised in the meeting. Assocham said filing of GST return has become nightmare for the taxpayers. “Therefore at least for six months of GST return should be deferred. Composition Scheme should be applicable for small service providers.”
