Objective of Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) is to encourage export of notified Services from India.
(a) Service Providers of notified services, located in India, shall be rewarded under SEIS. Only Services rendered in the manner as per Para 9.51 (i) and Para 9.51(ii) of this policy shall be eligible. The notified services and rates of rewards are listed in Appendix 3D. However, the service categories eligible under the scheme and the rates of reward on such services as rendered w.e.f. 01st April 2019 to 31st March, 2020 shall be notified separately in Appendix 3 X. For the services rendered w.e.f. 1st April, 2020, decision on continuation of the scheme will be taken subsequently and notified accordingly.
(b) Such service provider should have minimum net free foreign exchange earnings of US$15,000 in year of rendering service to be eligible for Duty Credit Scrip. For Individual Service Providers and sole proprietorship, such minimum net free foreign exchange earnings criteria would be US$10,000 in year of rendering service.
(c) Payment in Indian Rupees for service charges earned on specified services, shall be treated as receipt in deemed foreign exchange as per guidelines of Reserve Bank of India. The list of such services is indicated in Appendix 3E.
(d) Net Foreign exchange earnings for the scheme are defined as under: Net Foreign Exchange = Gross Earnings of Foreign Exchange minus Total expenses / payment / remittances of Foreign Exchange by the IEC holder, relating to service sector in the Financial year.
(e) If the IEC holder is a manufacturer of goods as well as service provider, then the foreign exchange earnings and Total expenses / payment / remittances shall be taken into account for service sector only.
(f) In order to claim reward under the scheme, Service provider shall have to have an active IEC at the time of rendering such services for which rewards are claimed.
(1) 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.
(2) Deleted
Service Providers of eligible services shall be entitled to Duty Credit Scrip at notified rates (as given in Appendix 3D) on net foreign exchange earned.
Free Foreign Exchange earned through international credit cards and other instruments, as permitted by RBI shall also be taken into account for computation of value of exports.
The schemes shall come into force with effect from the date of notification of this Policy, i.e. the rewards under MEIS/SEIS shall be admissible for exports made/services rendered on or after the date of notification of this Policy.
(a) Government reserves the right in public interest, to specify export products or services or markets, which shall not be eligible for computation of entitlement of duty credit scrip.
(b) Government reserves the right to impose restriction / change the rate/ceiling on Duty Credit Scrip under this chapter.
(c) Government may also notify goods in Appendix 3A which shall not be allowed for debiting through Duty Credit Scrips in case of import.
(d) Government may prescribe value cap of any kind for a product(s) or limit total reward per IEC holder under this chapter at any time.
For the goods exported or services rendered upto the date of notification of this Policy, which were otherwise eligible for issuance of scrips under erstwhile Chapter 3 of the earlier Foreign Trade Policy(ies) and scrip is applied / issued on or after notification of this Policy against such export of goods or services rendered, the then prevailing policy and procedure regarding eligibility, entitlement, transferability, usage of script and any other condition in force at the time of export of goods or rendering of the services, shall be applicable to such scrips.
Additional Customs duty specified under sections 3(1), 3(3) and 3(5) of the Custom Tariff Act,1975/ central excise duty /excise duty/Service Tax paid in cash or through debit under Duty Credit scrip shall be adjusted as CENVAT Credit or Duty Drawback as per DoR rules or notifications. Basic Custom duty paid in cash or through debit under Duty Credit scrip shall be adjusted for Duty Drawback as per DoR rules or notifications.
Utilization of Duty Credit Scrip shall be permitted for payment of duty in case of import of capital goods under lease financing in terms of provision in paragraph 2.34 of FTP.
(a) Transfer of export performance from one IEC holder to another IEC holder shall not be permitted. Thus, a shipping bill containing name of applicant shall be counted in export performance / turnover of applicant only if export proceeds from overseas are realized in applicant’s bank account and this shall be evidenced from e - BRC / FIRC.
(b) However, MEIS, rewards can be claimed either by the supporting manufacturer (along with disclaimer from the company / firm who has realized the foreign exchange directly from overseas) or by the company/ firm who has realized the foreign exchange directly from overseas.
(a) Duty Credit Scrip can be utilised / debited for payment of Custom Duties in case of EO defaults for Authorizations issued under Chapters 4 and 5 of "Foreign trade Policy”. Such utilization /usage shall be in respect of those goods which are permitted to be imported under the respective reward schemes. However, penalty / interest shall be required to be paid in cash.
(b) Duty credit scrips can also be used for payment of composition fee under FTP, for payment of application fee under FTP, if any and for payment of value shortfall in EO under para 4.49 of HBP 2015-20.
(a) A Risk Management System shall be in operation whereby every month Computer system in DGFT, Headquarters, on random basis, and on the basis of guidelines issued by the DGFT from time to time, will select 10% of cases applications for each RA where scrips and Status Holder Certificates have already been issued, under each scheme. RA in turn may call for original documents in all such selected cases for further examination in detail. In case any discrepancy and/ or over claim is found on such examination, the applicant shall be under obligation to rectify such discrepancy and/or refund over claim in cash with interest at the rate prescribed under section 28 A A of the Customs Act 1962, from the date of issue of scrip in the relevant Head of Account of Customs within one month. The original holder of scrip, however, may refund such over claim by surrendering the same scrip whether partially utilized or fully unutilized, without interest.
(b) Regional Authority may ask for original proof of landing certificate (wherever required under the policy), annexures attached to ANFs or any other document, which has been uploaded digitally or any other export related documents related to the application such as Export Invoices at any time within three years from the date of issue of scrip. Failure to submit such documents in original would make applicant liable to refund the reward granted along with interest at the rate prescribed under section 28 AA of the Customs Act 1962, from the date of issuance of scrip. It would be the responsibility of applicant to maintain such documents, certificate etc. for a period of at least three years from the date of issuance of scrips. If an applicant is found to have misdeclared the Item description under any ITC HS Code, appropriate action under FT(D&R) Act, would be taken. It would be the responsibility of applicant to maintain such documents, certificate etc. for a period of at least three years from the date of issuance of scrips or the completion of scrutiny under RMS initiated by the RA whichever is later.