Led by the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), India’s anxious exporters have written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman requesting an extension of the previously-granted exemption from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on export freight, reported ET Infra. They claimed that failure to grant the extension “will compound their liquidity challenges.”
Since its introduction in 2018, the federal government prolonged the exemption from GST on export freight twice. The most up-to-date extension, which lasted for 2 years, concluded on September 30, 2022.
If the exemption shouldn’t be prolonged for an additional time period, exporters can be required to pay 18 per cent GST on export ocean freight, which is able to enhance the logistical prices for Indian commodities on the worldwide market.
In an e-mail despatched to FM Sitharaman on October 2, FIEO president Dr A Sakthivel knowledgeable her of the consequences of withdrawing the exemption. He mentioned within the e-mail that the abroad freight has gone up by 300-350 per cent from pre-covid ranges and although there’s little correction within the freight charge lately, freights are nonetheless 200-250 per cent greater than at 2019 ranges.
He additional defined within the e-mail that it’s due to this fact that the fee of GST on such excessive freight charges will have an effect on the liquidity of the exporters to a big extent significantly because the rates of interest have additionally elevated with the latest hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The fee of GST on export freight and subsequent refund significantly by means of ITC mechanism comes with a time lag of 2-3 months or so, although refund by means of IGST mechanism is quicker, he mentioned.
“Such a move will affect our agriculture exports the most as in many cases of export of fruits and vegetables, the air freight, at times, is much higher than the freight on board (FOB) value of exports. Therefore, exporters would be required to pay a very high GST amount on such freight adversely impacting the cash flow,” he acknowledged.
International commerce, in accordance to the FIEO president, is “entering a very difficult phase as countries are facing high inflation and impending recession affecting the demand”. He mentioned that this has been revealed by India’s slowing export development charge between April and August.
FIEO president identified that exporters in India try their greatest regardless of the rupee being probably the most resilient currencies on the planet. Thus, not offering much less competitiveness to our exports as in contrast to our rivals as most currencies have depreciated at a a lot steeper tempo, he added.
Sakthivel claimed that as a result of exporters can pay the identical quantity after which obtain a refund, the GST on export freight is “income impartial.” While requesting the finance minister to extend the exemption for an additional interval to free the exporters from the trouble of securing extra funding, he acknowledged, “This may augment the liquidity of the Government but at the cost of the exporters. Since the cost of credit for the exporters is much high, an exemption will help the export sector to have better liquidity, which is the need of the hour. An early decision will be very much appreciated by the exporting community which is passing through a difficult phase and is likely to become further difficult in months to come.”