ISLAMABAD, June 24: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has introduced a range of changes particularly inclusion of services in the input goods under the Duty and Tax Remission for Export (DTRE) scheme.

Member Customs Export Zafar Majeed told Dawn on Friday that after extensive consultations with the trade bodies, the DTRE scheme had been revised in a view to remove the problems and irritants to make it attractive for exporters.

The DTRE scheme was launched in 2001 but due to certain teething problems, the scheme failed to receive good response from the exporters.

The facility under the revised DTRE scheme shall not admissible to: Pure Terephthalic Acid (PTA), raw sugar and cooking oil or vegetable ghee or their raw materials; and the goods which are banned or restricted under the prevalent Import and Export Policy Orders on account of national security, public health and cultural, moral or religious considerations.

Elaborating the main features of the revised DTRE scheme, the customs member said that the component of duty drawback under the scheme had been increased from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the value of DTRE approval, which could be further enhanced by the Export Promotion Bureau for any specific good.

Mr Majeed said that the use of inputs from available stocks or subsequently acquired stocks had been allowed up to 20 per cent with sales tax refund facility and the utilization period had been enhanced from 12 months to 18 months further extendible by the CBR in exceptional cases.

All types of surcharges have been done away with under the revised scheme, he added.

He said that the regulatory collector (customs collector) for the purpose of DTRE scheme had been replaced with sales tax collector.

Besides, he said, trims and accessories, furnace oil and diesel oil used in the generation of electricity for consumption in the manufacture of DTRE export had also been included in the input goods.

Mr Majeed said that the scheme had been extended to supplies made to concessionaire sectors, projects and export processing zones (EPZs).

He said that the indirect exporters had been made eligible to take performance based advance DTRE approvals on the analogy of direct exporters. They would be allowed to meet their production requirements for 12 months instead of earlier six months under the performance-based DTRE approvals.

The member said that the tags and printed materials supplied by the foreign buyers without any foreign exchange involvement had been exempted form any quantitative restrictions.

Under the amended rules, he said, the facility of furnishing corporate guarantee has been provided for corporate sector exporters. Substitution of export contracts and use of previously held input goods for new DTRE approvals had also been allowed.

He said the return of input goods to the suppliers had been allowed besides sale of output goods between the direct exporters; quantitative restrictions on the local disposal of B-grade products and factory rejects had been removed and the formats of DTRE application and reconciliation statement had also been substantively simplified.