Sending a strong and positive signal
to the exporting community, the GST Council, during its 26th meeting here,
decided to extend the available tax exemptions on imported goods for a further 6
months beyond March 31, 2018. Thus, exporters presently availing various
export promotion schemes can now continue to avail such exemptions on their
imports up to October 1, 2018, by which time an e-Wallet scheme is expected to
be in place to continue the benefits in future, highlighted a release.
In a related development which would
benefit the exporters, the Council reviewed the progress in grant of refunds to
exports of both IGST and Input Tax Credit. The Council appreciated that the pace
of grant of IGST refund has picked up. Thereafter, it directed GSTN to
expeditiously forward the balance refund claims to the Customs/Central GST/state
GST authorities, as the case may be, for their immediate sanction and disbursal.
It may be recalled that at its
meeting held in October 2017, the Council had noted that exporters are
experiencing difficulties of cash blockage on account of having to upfront pay
GST/IGST on the inputs, raw materials etc., finished goods imported/procured for
purposes of export. An interim solution was found by re-introducing the pre-GST
tax exemptions on such imports. Additionally, for merchant exporters, a special
scheme of payment of GST @ 0.1 per cent on their procured goods was introduced.
Also, domestic procurement made under Advance Authorisation, EPCG and EOU
schemes were recognised as ‘deemed exports’ with flexibility for either the
suppliers or the exporters being able to claim a refund of GST/IGST paid
thereon. All these avenues were made available up to March 31, 2018.
The permanent solution agreed to by
the Council was to introduce an e-Wallet scheme with effect from April 1, 2018.
The scheme is basically the creation of electronic e-Wallets, which would be
credited with notional or virtual currency by the DGFT. This notional/virtual
currency would be used by exporters to make the payment of GST/IGST on the goods
imported/procured by them so their funds are not blocked.
In December 2017, the Finance
Secretary had constituted a Working Group with representatives of the Central
and state governments to operationalise the e-Wallet scheme. After reviewing the
progress, the Council noted that whereas some preparatory work had been done,
more needs to be done to address a large number of technical, legal and
administrative issues that have been identified. The Council appreciated that
this would require more time. The Council was also unanimous that there should
be no disruption which may affect exports. Accordingly, the Council agreed to:
(a) Defer the implementation of the
e-Wallet scheme by 6 months, i.e. up to October 1, 2018
(b) Extend the present dispensation
in terms of exemptions, etc., which is available up to March 31, 2018, for a
further 6 months, i.e. up to October 1, 2018
Source : Exim
News Service - New Delhi, March 12