Seeking to make SEZs and EOUs more competitive globally and bolster exports, the Export Promotion Council for EOUs & SEZs (EPCES) has proposed to cover them under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) scheme and also accord infrastructure status for affordable credit.
Making strong case for reimbursement of embedded duties in items exported from SEZs and EOUs, the Council has maintained that 25 percent of inputs required for manufacturing export products are procured domestically by SEZ units and EOUs just like other local units.
EPCES Chairman Bhuvnesh Seth said that the proposal to cover SEZs and EOUs under the new RoDTEP scheme has been submitted to the government.
“We have been assured that a committee is being set up to finalise the rates for exports from SEZs,” he said.
Speaking to UNI, Seth called for declaring SEZs as “infrastructure” to ensure priority-sector lending from banks.
Among the key challenges faced by the sector, Seth mentioned rising material costs, soaring logistics charges and deficiency in physical infrastructure especially connectivity from SEZs to ports.
Bullish on exports, the EPCES Chief said that outward shipments this year from SEZs and EOUs would surpass the pre-Covid level of Rs 7.84 lakh crore in 2019-20.
“We should be able to achieve about Rs 8 lakh crore of exports in the current financial year,” he said.
Srikanth Badiga, Vice Chairman, EPCES hoped that more investments would flow to Indian SEZs in the coming months and years as large MNCs shift part of their manufacturing capacity away from China in post-Covid world.
“We are geared up to attract investment from companies looking to shift their manufacturing base from China. When you look at global studies post-Covid, the country which is expected to potentially gain the maximum is India,” he said.
With the recovery in export markets, exports from SEZs have been on the rise. During the April-June quarter of current fiscal, merchandise exports from SEZs have grown by 91 percent while services exports have grown by 8 percent over the corresponding periods previous year.