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Government of India has introduced the Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) under the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) - 2015-20, replacing the earlier scheme 'Served from India Scheme’ under Foreign Trade Policy, 2009-15. The main objective of the scheme is to make our services globally competitive in terms of price. Under SEIS, the services providers of notified services are incentivized in the form of Duty Credit Scrips at the rate of 3 or 5% on their net foreign exchange earnings. These SEIS scrips are transferrable and can also be used for payment of a number of Central duties/taxes including the basic customs duty. The rewards under SEIS shall be admissible for export of services rendered on or after 01.04.2015, i.e. the date of notification of the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20.
To avail SEIS benefits –
A company looking to secure SEIS investment must have no more than 25 employees, whilst those looking to secure EIS investment must have no more than 250 employees. To be eligible for SEIS funding, a company must have been trading for less than 2 year.
Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) is a reward computed based on the ‘net’ free foreign exchange realized and the percentage of this reward is specified in Appendix 3D of the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20.
The various services eligible to claim benefits under the SEIS are enumerated in the following paragraphs.
An Online Application needs to be filed on the DGFT Server and the relevant fields of information need to be entered in the SEIS ECOM Module. All the relevant forms which are ANF3B and Annexure to ANF3B are available online.
Whether you are a manufacturer or a services provider, RCMC (Registration Cum Membership Certificate) from the relevant export promotion council is compulsory in your main line of business. As per Public Notice No. 26/2015-2020 dated 01.08.2018 issued by Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Department of Commerce to add an “Others” category in list of 14 service sectors of SEPC. Now all the services are covered by SEPC along with 14 service sectors explicitly mentioned earlier. Therefore, if you are a services provider and want to avail SEIS incentives, then SEPC RCMC is compulsory.
Service providers of eligible services shall be entitled to duty credit scrip at notified rates on the net foreign exchange earned. Duty credit scrips can be used for the payment of custom duties, excise duties, GST on procurement of services, custom duty in case of default in fulfilment of export obligation under Advance Authorization/EPCG, etc., Further, the SEIS scheme has given relaxation to the actual user condition and duty credit scrips and goods imported using duty credit scrips are freely transferable. Duty credit scrip would be valid for a period of 18 months from the date of issue.
Foreign exchange remittances other than those earned for rendering of notified services would not be counted for entitlement. Thus, other sources of foreign exchange earnings such as equity or debt participation, donations, receipts of repayment of loans etc. and any other inflow of foreign exchange, unrelated to rendering of service, would be ineligible.
The information on Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) is detailed above. Comment below your thoughts on Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS).