EPCH urges government to reconsider remission rates for handicrafts in RoDTEP scheme

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Sep 21, 2021

On September 20, the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts requested the central government to reconsider tax refund rates for the handicraft sector to help the sector grow in India and abroad.

The EPCH has urged the government to reassess remission rates for the handicrafts sector under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products scheme, ET Bureau reported. The current remission rates for handicrafts goods under RoDTEP range between 0.01% and 2.4% and the EPCH has requested more favourable rates. 
 
The EPCH chairman, Rajkumar Malhotra, met with Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday to discuss issues relating to handicrafts exports with a view to ameliorating the sector.

Malhotra also asked for the restoration of duty-free imports of materials including essential embellishment, trimmings, and tools for the handicrafts sector. Malhotra said that the scheme has been very helpful for handicrafts manufacturers which imported such items to embellish products including fashion jewellery, wooden handicrafts, lighting, and lamps, among others. 
 
India’s handicrafts exports totalled $3.5 billion (Rs 23,284.6 crore) in the 2021 financial year, according to the EPCH. The central government has stated that it aims to increase handicrafts exports as part of its Make in India scheme to boost domestic production.