India is considering boosting exports by introducing fast refunds of central and state taxes and levies. The new scheme would ensure refund of all unrebated central and state levies and taxes imposed on inputs that are consumed in exports of all sectors. State VAT/central excise duty on fuel used in transportation, captive power, farm sector; mandi tax; duty of electricity; stamp duty on export documents, purchases from unregistered dealers; embedded CGST and compensation cess coal used in the production of electricity are some of the major levies. The total compensation under the remission of state levies scheme and a new scheme to reimburse against embedded central taxes (even after the GST rollout) will be raised to 6.05 per cent (of freight-on-board value) for garments and 8.2 per cent for made-ups from the current 1.7 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively.

So far the Merchandise Exports for India Scheme (MEIS) was the most important export promotion scheme under which exporters were provided duty credit scrip at two per cent, three per cent or five per cent of their export turnover, depending on products and shipment destinations. But the MEIS is being opposed by the US, which alleges that the MEIS is not in sync with global trade norms.