SRTEPC has urged the Finance Ministry and the NITI Aayog to continue with the Merchandise Exports of India Scheme (MEIS) in order to boost exports. Ronak Rughani, Chairman, SRTEPC says the sudden termination of scheme on July 23 is a shock for exporters as it would severely hit exports from the country which have already been bleeding because of COVID-19 pandemic.

Rughani further stated that MEIS was designed by the government under the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 to provide relief to exporters to offset infrastructural inefficiencies and associated costs. Currently infrastructural inefficiencies and associated costs have multiplied due to lockdown, paralyzed economic activities, created labor shortage, etc. In such a situation, incentives and support provided in the MEIS are extremely important to cushion exports. Rughnani urged the government to restore the MEIS benefits till the RoDTEP is activated.

MEIS was launched as an incentive scheme for the export of goods after merging various schemes for different sectors. Duty credit scrips issued under earlier incentive schemes were transferred to the MEIS and the rewards are given by way of duty credit scrips to exporters.