Cabinet approves RoDTEP scheme to reimburse taxes, duties paid by exporters

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Friday approved the Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP), a scheme for exporters to reimburse taxes and duties paid by them such as value added tax, coal cess, mandi tax, electricity duties and fuel used for transportation, which are not getting exempted or refunded under any other existing mechanism.

“This RoDTEP scheme is very important for our exports to get level playing field at the international level,” said commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal.

The scheme comes at a time when India’s exports declined for the sixth month in a row in January and face uncertainty due to the spread of the novel Coronavirus.


India’s exports were $265.26 billion in the April-January period, a 1.93% decline on-year. The country had clocked $331 billion of exports in 2018-19. The commerce and industry ministry will release the data for February later this evening.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the RoDTEP last year to incentivise exporters at an estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore.

The RoDTEP rates will be decided after industry consultations and that would take 6-8 months, Goyal said.

It will replace the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) that was found to violate the World Trade Organization rules as it was export focused. MEIS will be phased out.