Latest news with #WTO-compliant
Fibre2Fashion
4 days ago
- Business
- Fibre2Fashion
India to restore RoDTEP benefits for AA, EOU & SEZ exports from June 1
Government of India has reinstated Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme benefits for Advance Authorisation (AA) holders, Export-Oriented Units (EOUs), and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) units. Applicable from June 1, 2025, the move aims to strengthen India's export competitiveness and ensure parity across all exporter categories. These benefits had earlier lapsed on February 5, 2025. Their restoration signals the government's ongoing commitment to boosting merchandise exports by offsetting unrefunded embedded duties and taxes. Since its launch on January 1, 2021, the WTO-compliant scheme has disbursed over ₹57,976.78 crore (~$6.8 billion), the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a press release. Indian government has reinstated RoDTEP benefits for AA holders, EOUs and SEZ units from June 1. The move aims to enhance export competitiveness and ensure parity across exporter categories. Earlier withdrawn in February 2025, the scheme has disbursed over ₹57,976.78 crore (~$6.8 billion) since 2021. For FY26, ₹18,233 crore is allocated to support a wide range of HS lines via a digital platform. For FY26, ₹18,233 crore has been earmarked to support exports under 10,780 HS lines for Domestic Tariff Area and 10,795 HS lines for AA/EOU/SEZ segments. The scheme is operated through a fully digital platform to ensure transparency and ease of access for exporters. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)
New Indian Express
4 days ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
Govt reinstate duty remission scheme for SEZs
Operational since 1st January 2021, the RoDTEP scheme is designed to reimburse exporters for embedded duties, taxes, and levies that are not otherwise refunded under any other existing scheme. The scheme intends to compensate all central, state and local taxes levied on the exported products. RoDTEP is compliant with World Trade Organization (WTO) norms and is implemented via a comprehensive end-to-end digital platform to ensure transparency and efficiency. The commerce ministry informed that total disbursements under the RoDTEP scheme have crossed Rs. 57,976.78 crore as of 31 March 2025, underscoring its significant role in supporting India's merchandise exports. For 2025–26, the Government has allocated Rs. 18,233 crore under the scheme. 'The reinstatement of RoDTEP benefits for special export categories reflects the government's continued commitment to creating a conducive, competitive, and compliant export ecosystem that drives India's long-term trade growth,' says the commerce ministry. However, Ajay Srivastava, founder, Global Trust Research Initiative (GTRI), the government's stop-and-start approach to RoDTEP undermines the scheme's purpose. 'Although RoDTEP is a WTO-compliant way to refund embedded duties paid by exporters, its repeated withdrawal for AA holders, EOUs, and SEZs creates serious uncertainty. Exporters struggle to price products or plan long-term deals when they cannot rely on steady refunds,' he says.
Mint
23-04-2025
- Business
- Mint
Trade aggression: India's steel shield mustn't turn into a slippery slope
Fears of surplus production overseas being dumped in India, especially by Chinese manufacturers, have spiked amid the ongoing tariff war. On Monday, India's ministry of finance notified a safeguard duty of 12% for 200 days on five categories of steel imports if sold below specified dollar prices. These include hot rolled coils, sheets and plates; hot rolled plate mill plates; cold rolled coils and sheets; metallic coated steel coils and sheets; and colour coated coils and sheets. This follows the preliminary findings of a probe by the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), which had noted a 'recent, sudden, sharp and significant increase in imports" of these goods, putting domestic producers at the threat of 'serious injury." Government data shows that our steel imports rose to 9.5 million tonnes in 2024-25 from 8.3 million tonnes the previous year. Shipments from South Korea, Japan and other countries have been under the DGTR scanner, but particularly imports from China, whose economic slowdown has led to a steel glut. As dumping is an unfair trade practice that hurts local businesses, anti-dumping levies are allowed under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, so long as they're proportionate, temporary and based on evidence. Even without WTO caveats, this device must always be used judiciously. After all, if duties are raised on industrial inputs, user industries could suffer higher costs; if levied on finished goods, consumers may end up paying more. As there is often a thin line between safeguard duties and outright protectionism, all stakeholders within the country and abroad should have clarity on the rationale employed. In the case of steel products, the Centre's notice refers to a DGTR report of 18 March that lays out trends on excess capacity overseas and a surge in our import volumes, along with indexed data on how prices were undercut. To establish injury, it shows how indexed local profits and employment took big hits. It has other supportive numbers too. In fact, the 93-page document seems overloaded with tabulations. Ideally, in such cases, the government should also offer an executive summary to explain why the action was taken. This would keep the scope for doubt minimal. Price information is key. A sudden drop in import prices is a telltale sign of wares being dumped. Deep-discount sales can also be inferred from a comparison of prices charged by producers in their home markets and here. Clinching evidence that satisfies the textbook definition of below-cost dumping would require the actual production costs of foreign exporters, but these are difficult to obtain and Chinese data would be clouded by subsidies doled out by the state—a reason it's blamed for warping fair trade. The shield erected in defence of Indian steelmakers not only appears WTO-compliant, it is in line with actions taken by many other nations. A clearer enunciation of its logic, however, would deter dubious demands from sundry other industries that may want to be shielded from global competition. While business lobbies can hardly be blamed for trying, safeguard duties levied on flimsy grounds would push up costs all around. Several quality control orders issued by the Centre are already suspected of acting as non-tariff barriers. New hurdles raised across the economy for imports would leave us with a higher cost base, which would deal a blow to our global competitiveness. All said, we must take care that a shield for steel doesn't turn into a slippery slope.
