Commerce and Finance ministeries will soon take a view on the issue of release of duty refund claims of exporters, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Monday said.
"I have discussed the matter with the Finance Minister. The commerce secretary will discuss the issue with the revenue secretary to expedite the refund of pending funds," Sharma told reporters here. Exporters have claimed that the duty refund claims have touched Rs 12,000 crore. Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said that tomorrow he would meet his revenue counterpart on the matter.
"I hope we will resolve the issue," Kher said.Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has said that liquidity is a big issue for exports and pending claims of refund of service tax, duty drawback, rebate claims and VAT are affecting exports. Government has fixed an export target of $ 325 billion for the current fiscal.Although Sharma did not say whether the target would be achieved or not but said "i feel exports will be definitely higher than last year". In 2012-13, exports stood at $300.4 billion.During April-January, exports grew by 5.71 per cent to $ 257 billion, while imports dipped by 7.81 per cent to $ 377 billion.