New Delhi, Mar 27: PHDCCI today sought continuation of the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme and said the validity period of the scheme should be increased to 18 months from the present 12 months. In a presentation to the commerce ministry, the chamber said extension of the validity period was necessary as almost 30 per cent of the country's exports were under the DEPB scheme.
DEPB is currently issued with a validity of 12 months with no provision for extending it further.
The chamber suggested removal of sales tax by state governments imposed on DEPB and said this was against the spirit of the scheme which sought to neutralise the duty element on inputs used in the manufacture of export products.
“If at all sales tax has to be imposed, then it should be on premium only and not on the total DEPB credit,” PHDCCI said in a release.
It further suggested specific percentage for the scheme which should be categorised as 'general' and 'special'.
The general rate of credit would be for exports achieving value addition stipulated in the policy and special rate for those exports achieving value addition higher by 10 per cent than what is stipulated in the policy. Bureau Report