The Government of India has notified the revised duty drawback rates applicable to articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted (under Chapter 61 of Customs Schedule); articles of apparel and clothing accessories, not knitted or crocheted (Chapter 62); and other made-up textile articles, sets, worn clothing and worn textile articles (Chapter 63), which would be effective from September 21, 2013. The drawback rates for garments made of cotton, man-made fibre and silk have been increased to 7.6 percent, 10.2 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively for 2013-14, but the detailed information can be found in Customs Notification No. 98/2013-Cus (NT).
The revised All Industry Rates of duty drawback have been notified by the Central Board of Excise and Customs, Ministry of Finance, on the recommendations of an expert committee headed by Saumitra Chaudhuri, Member of the Planning Commission and of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. Apart from the rate changes, to assist exporters, a large number of rationalization measures have also been undertaken to realign entries, provide rates on more items, better differentiate all industry rates for export products with higher duty incidence or to address classification issues on export products.
With the revised rates, the Central Government will continue to support exporters with substantial total drawback. Moreover, for expeditiously addressing exporters concerns, the term of the Committee has been continued for another three months. Commenting on the hike in duty drawback rate, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) chairman A Sakthivel said it would give a boost to India's overseas clothing shipments.
