Exemptions, incentives and GST don't go together: Commerce Secretary

Kolkata: Commerce secretary Rita Teaotia on Saturday told the exporting community that exemptions and incentives, which were being given for promoting exports would go away once the GST was in place.

"Exemptions and incentives will go away once the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is implemented. GST and exemptions do not go hand-in-hand," Teaotia said at a session organised by EEPC, FIEO and GJEPC here.

She said the department of revenue was getting all the suggestions and representing from various quarters on the probable impact of GST on exports.

"The commerce department is not involved with the GST legislation. We will give our inputs to the finance department before everything gets finalised," the official said.

Saying that many countries across the world were resorting to protectionist policies to protect insulate their domestic industries from suffering due to the global slowdown, the Indian government was making efforts to create a conducive environment for making country's exports competitive.

"Programmes like Make in India, Skill India, Digital India were efforts to increase competitiveness of Indian exports," she said.

Regarding SEZs, she said that the government was committed to this sector.

"We will align our policies in tune with the GST. Our interest and concern is to protect the export sector and SEZ is important for the country's economic landscape," she said.