With the Finance Ministry finally lifting the unofficial embargo on duty refunds to exporters, the Commerce Ministry wants to press for speedy clearance of the payments estimated at ₹12,000 crore which have been pending for last six months.

“Exporters have been facing an acute cash crunch for the last few months because of blocked refunds. Now that the embargo has been lifted by the Finance Ministry, we want them to clear the dues at the earliest,” a Commerce Ministry official told Business Line.

The Finance Ministry had clamped down on input duty refunds under the duty drawback scheme since October 2013, as it struggled to keep expenditure under control so as to not cross the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent of GDP.

With the new fiscal year beginning this month, the unofficial embargo on refunds have been lifted and ports such as Tughlakabad, Ludhiana, Chennai and JNPT have already started making payments.

But, exporters fear, the process could take several months if the Government does not make efforts to expedite it.“More than 14 lakh shipping bills worth ₹12,000 crore are pending. In JNPT alone, the process could take two months if not given priority,” export federation FIEO’s Director-General Ajay Sahai pointed out.

The Commerce Ministry has been urging the Finance Ministry for the past many months to clear all dues as they had been affecting the fund flows of exporting units.

“Now that financial year 2013-14 is finally over, (the ministry) does not have compulsions to hold back the payments further,” the official said.

Small exporters were finding it difficult to meet their orders because of a fund crunch, the FIEO said.

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