Govt announces fresh incentives to boost exports and housing sector

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced a fresh set of measures worth around 70,000 crore rupees to boost exports and housing sector. She said that the government will provide a 10,000 crore rupees special window with an aim to help complete ongoing affordable and middle-income housing projects.

The housing projects considered for the special window have been limited to non-NPA (Non-Performing Assets) and non-NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) projects. This will benefit roughly 3.5 lakh projects across the country.

The other key incentives include extending the scheme of reimbursement of taxes and duties for export promotion, fully automated electronic refund for Input Tax Credits (ITC) in GST, revised priority sector lending norms for exports and expanding the scope of Export Credit Insurance Scheme



(ECIS).

An inter-ministerial working group has also been formed to monitor export finance. Accordingly, the scheme for Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Product (RoDTEP) was announced which will replace Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) for textiles. In effect, RoDTEP will more than adequately incentivise exporters than existing schemes put together.

Textile and all other sectors which currently enjoy incentives up to 2 per cent over MEIS will transit into RoDTEP from January 1, 2020. Mrs Sitharaman also announced that the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) will expand the scope of export credit insurance service (ECIS).

Finance Minister also said that India will organise annual mega shopping festivals at four locations with four themes across the country in March 2020.