by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Investing
Amit Mitra
Kolkata : West Bengal government has submitted a Rs 350-crore project for Bantala leather cluster, aiming to modernise and expand the existing Calcutta Leather Complex located in the outskirts of the city, a minister said on Monday.
“We have already sent a proposal to the Centre for co-funding in the Rs 350-crore project. But, we are not waiting but going ahead with some of the components of the project,” state Finance Minister Amit Mitra said.
He, however, did not reveal the amounts of respective shares of the state and central centre governments in the project.
In the past several years, tanneries in the Leather Complex have been complaining against the inadequate infrastructure.
“Already, five lakh people are associated with the sector and I hope additional two lakh more employment would be generated once the project is complete,” Mitra said while inaugurating a leather exhibition and fair here.
Mitra also claimed about 300 fresh applications from Kanpur, Chennai and Kolkata were received expressing interest in setting up new units here.
State’s leather and leather products exports account for about USD one billion out of aggregate exports of USD 8.5 billion in 2016-17, Mitra added.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Economy, News, Politics
Amit Mitra
Kolkata : Raising concern on the mechanism for GST refund to exporters, West Bengal Finance Minister and GST Council’s member Amit Mitra said a parliamentary panel pointed out “no interface” among the GST Network (GSTN) and Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) electronic data interchange (EDI) systems.
He said delayed refund to exporters in GST regime would lead to job loss in the labour intensive export sectors.
Citing the parliamentary committee’s report, he said: “It has been noticed that there is no interface amongst GSTN and DGFT EDI systems. Even the training given to the officers on ground on issues like Letter of Undertaking (LUT) and related matters has not been adequate… it has been experienced that it is easy to pay tax but it is very difficult to get a refund.”
According to him, the problem lies in the refund delivery mechanism because of “manual” processing of refund application and the system becomes more “primitive”.
“I am deeply concerned on the GST matters vis-a-vis exports,” he said while addressing the Export Excellence Awards ceremony organised by the Federation of India Export Organisations on Thursday evening.
According to the report — Impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on Exports — by the parliamentary committee headed by Naresh Gujral, the refund of IGST paid on export goods and refund of Input Tax Credit (ITC) on goods exported under Letter of Undertaking (LUT)/ Bond in the month of July, August, and September, 2017 still remain pending.
As a result, huge amount of working capital has been reportedly locked up, thereby, severely hurting the businesses of exporters and affecting their ability to be competitive in international markets. The Committee notes that a sharp liquidity crunch has gripped the majority of exporters due to the blocking of funds, the report said.
“It (the delay in disbursing refund) means your capital is blocked. The committee’s report said the (quantum of) blocked capital (stuck up with the government for refunds) could be between 15-20 per cent of the working capital. Declining of the working capital would lead to losing of jobs by the workers,” he said.
Again, citing the report, Mitra said the Committee notes that in the month of October, there is an overall decline in the merchandise exports by negative 1.12 per cent vis-a-vis exports of October last year.
The Committee notes that during the period July-October there has been a drop in the exports in the sectors like readymade garments of all textiles, fruits and vegetables, carpets, handicrafts, gems and jewellery, and there has been some stagnation in the sectors like leather.
According to the report, the labour intensive sectors appear to have been adversely impacted in this brief period, he said.
Mitra said the GSTN is supposed to process 300 crore of invoices per month and the software system has to undergo a change.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate Jobs, Economy, Emerging Businesses, Employment, Finance, Markets, Medium Enterprise, News, Private Jobs, SMEs
Kolkata : West Bengal expects its exports to touch Rs 75,000 crore to Rs 80,000 crore by 2019-20, a Minister said on Friday.
According to State Finance and Commerce Minister, Amit Mitra, Bengal’s export turnover grew to Rs 53,649 crore in 2016-17 against Rs 47,857 crore in 2015-16.
“The growth has been over 10.49 per cent. At a compounded annual rate of growth over the three years, I am hoping by 2019-20, the exports turnover to be over Rs 75,000 crore,” Mitra said at an exports excellence awards ceremony organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations Eastern Region here on Thursday evening.
Mitra said micro, small and medium enterprises relating to exports of textiles, gems and jewellery, leather and foundry provided as many as 17.70 lakh employments in the state during the last fiscal.
He pointed out that gems and jewellery, leather, iron and steel and many others sectors, including 10 exports items were contributing over 63 per cent share in state’s exports.
The state provides exports opportunities, not only in neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, but also strategic markets in Asean countries, he said.
—IANS
