SME Times News Bureau | 05 Apr, 2012
Exporters' body FIEO Wednesday urged
the Centre to exempt exporters from payment of Service Tax on the
export related services.
Speaking at Post Budget Interactive
Session organized by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations,
Director General of the industry chamber Ajay Sahai urged the
government to bring the export related services like Commission to
Foreign Agents and Movement of Containers to Port, among others, into
the negative list so that exporters are exempted from payment of
Service Tax.
Addressing the event, Central Board of
Excise and Customs (CBEC) S K Goel said that the recent Budget proposals to
increase duties and bring more goods and services under the ambit of
tax net have been taken keeping in mind the tax GDP ratio that went
down from 4.45% last year to 3.8% this year.
Mentioning that in 2009, excise duties
were reduced from a peak of 14% to 8% to give a stimulus to the
industry struggling in the recession, and in the last year budget, excise
duties were increased to 10% and then to 12% this year, he appealed
the industry to gradually adjust with this scenario by the time GST
is implemented.
When GST will be
implemented, which has already been endorsed by the Empowered
Committee of State Finance Ministers, large number of tax issues will
get resolved automatically, he said.
During the interaction, Sahai urged the
CBEC official to look into the issue of charging duty on iron ore on
Dry Metric Ton (DMT) basis. He stated that a recent clarification
regarding assessment of iron ore for charging of export duty issued
earlier by the board appears to be ambiguous.
Speaking on the occasion, FIEO member
Ashok Jain viewed that the Centre should support exporters in the
present difficult situation arising due to Eurozone crisis by rolling
back the excise duty on handmade carpets and realizing the legitimate
benefits of exporters in time.
Earlier welcoming Goel, FIEO past
president Navratan Samdria said that Rule 14 of Cenvat Credit Rules
is a bold step in the right direction. He said that fiscal
consolidation is the focus of the budget.
He added that introduction of the
negative list of services for service tax purpose is a welcome step
which reduces the confusion and complemented CBEC for bringing common
simplified registration form and common return form for both excise
and service tax.