Govt recovers Rs 852 crore under amnesty scheme for exporters

NEW DELHI : The one-time amnesty scheme for exporters who failed to meet obligations that they had agreed upon while availing duty-free imports of inputs and machinery for production has netted the government Rs 852 crore, a senior official has said.

As many as 6,705 applications were filed by the exporters to take advantage of the scheme, which enabled them to reduce their paybacks to the government for not meeting export obligations under the Advanced Authorisation (AA) and Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) Schemes. Officials said the money collected under the scheme could go up further.

In the normal course, if an exporter fails to meet the export obligations, the duty saved has to be paid back to the government. If repayment exceeds the time limit prescribed under the schemes, interest is also charged.

In the amnesty scheme announced in the Foreign Trade Policy released on March 31 last year, the interest was capped at 100% of exempted duties under the scheme. However, no interest was payable on the portion of Additional Customs Duty and Special Additional Customs Duty. This brought down the interest burden on exporters, as many cases of non-fulfillment of export obligations have been pending for a long time.

By November 30, exporters had to file that they will participate in amnesty scheme and the deadline of payment of customs duty and interest was March 31. The last amnesty scheme for exporters was announced back in 2011-12.