Relaxation of using existing pre-printed packing materials or wrappers
This is in furtherance of our earlier update NITYA’s Insight | Issue 109 | Legislative changes under GST, other Indirect Taxes, Foreign Trade Policy and Legal Metrology law amid COVID-19 outbreak shared vide the trailing mail.
This update is to apprise you regarding:
- Relaxation provided by the Government to manufacturers and packers for using existing packing material; and
- Various proposals of exporters that have been turned down.
These issues have been discussed as under:
Relaxation for using existing packing material
Almost all manufacturing activities have come to halt since March 24, 2020 (commencement of lockdown). As on date, manufacturers and packers have huge stocks of packing material with pre-printed month and year of manufacturing or packing which have now become unusable.
To eliminate burden of cost of such packing material, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has provided relaxation to manufacturers and packers. They have been permitted to use existing pre-printed packing materials or wrappers for products manufactured or packed up to September 30, 2020 or till such pre-printed packing materials are exhausted, whichever is earlier. This relaxation is subject to the condition that manufacturers and packers will be required to stamp or put sticker or do online printing of correct month and year of manufacturing or packing on existing pre-printed packing material.
(Refer Letter WM-10(22)/2020 dated April 17, 2020 by Legal Metrology Division, Ministry of Consumer Affairs)
Rejection of proposal of exporters for increase in export benefits
The exporters’ community has been continuously representing the Government to provide impetus to exports in these challenging times. The Government has rejected their requests and clarified that no additional export incentive will be given. We have tabulated key proposals made by exporters and decision of the Government, as under:
|
S. No. |
Issues raised by the stakeholders |
Comments |
|
1. |
Providing MEIS incentive based on shipping bill within 15 days of physical export instead of linking it to e-BRC |
MEIS incentive is linked to realization of export proceeds. Therefore, MEIS incentive shall continue to be based on e-BRC. RBI has already relaxed the period of realization of export proceeds from 9 months to 15 months
|
|
2. |
Providing 5 percent additional export incentives for one year and increase in MEIS and SEIS rates by at least 2 percent |
MEIS incentive has already been extended till December 31, 2020 and may be further extended to March 31, 2021
Any further revision in rates of MEIS and SEIS is not feasible at this moment
|
|
3. |
Providing SEIS incentive for more services including software and units operating in International Financial Services Centre
|
Any increase in coverage of SEIS incentive is not feasible at this moment due to budget constraints |
|
4. |
Issuance of MEIS scrip for exports made from SEZ in electronic form (like for exports made from DTA) |
Data of MEIS scrip for exports made from SEZ is not exchanged and integrated with Customs server. This would be possible only after integration of SEZ server with Customs server
|
|
5. |
MEIS scrip should not be rejected merely because applicant fails to declare its intent in shipping bill |
Marking / ticking ‘Y’ in reward column of shipping bill is mandatory to claim MEIS incentive. In its absence, shipping bill does not pass Risk Management System nor data is transmitted from ICEGATE server to DGFT server |
(Refer F.No. K-43022/7/2020-SEZ (3145523) dated April 29, 2020 by Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry)
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