The Government vide Notification No. 29/2015-20 dated September 23, 2021, has notified Appendix 3X, listing out services and available rates under Service Exports from India Scheme (‘SEIS’) for Financial Year (‘FY’) 2019-20. The salient features of this Notification are as follows:

• SEIS rates have been reduced by 2 percent as compared to FY 2018-19 to restore rates effective till September 2017.

• Total entitlement has been capped to 5 crores per exporter.

• Following services have been excluded from list of services that were eligible for SEIS benefit till FY 2018-19:

• Notification has inserted Para 3.10B in Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-20 to provide final cut-off date of December 31, 2021, for filing SEIS claims for FY 2019-20 post which claims will become time-barred.

NITYA Comments: Issuance of eligible services and rates for SEIS benefit for FY 2019-20 has been significantly delayed. Apart from reducing multiple services from its purview, benefit has been reduced by 2%. Similar to MEIS, the Government has capped quantum of benefit for large exporters. The aforesaid measures are regressive considering that exporters are facing tough times due to COVID-19 situation. Also, there is no clarity yet on availability of SEIS benefits for FY 2020-21 and FY 2021-22