On announcement of Foreign Trade Policy on 1 April, 2015, 4914 products at 8 digit Harmonised Codes (HS Codes) were covered under Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS). Since then, the coverage has been widened adding 3000 products thereby covering a total of 7914 products at present. These lists of items are available at the website link dgft.gov.in

The review of MEIS was intended to boost India’s export performance. MEIS covers all the countries now. Since there is no distinction among countries/regions now, the proof of landing has been dispensed with, there by simplifying procedure and reducing transaction cost.

Exports have shown some revival during the last two months. During October, 2016, exports have shown a positive growth of 9.59% in dollar terms (12.43% higher in Rupee term) compared to October, 2015

At present, the MEIS is available at varying rates of 2- 5 % depending on the export products. There is no proposal under consideration to increase the incentive to 6% as the available resources have been fully allocated during this fiscal year.

For service sector, the Government has introduced the Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) w.e.f. 01.04.2015 under which the service providers of notified services are incentivised in the form of duty credit scrips in the range of 3-5 % on their net foreign exchange earned.  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 services covered under the scheme falls under nine broad sectors which are the following:

• Business services
• Communication services
• Construction and related engineering services
• Educational services
• Environmental services
• Health related and social services
• Tourism and travel related services
• Recreational, cultural and sporting services
• Transport service

This information was given by the Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

Export incentive scheme expanded to broader product coverage and simplified compliance, with transferable duty credit scrips for services. The Merchandise Exports from India Scheme has expanded product coverage to 7,914 eight digit HS items and now applies to all destination countries, with proof of landing dispensed to streamline compliance; MEIS incentives remain tiered and no increase is proposed due to fully allocated fiscal resources. The Service Exports from India Scheme, effective 1 April 2015, awards transferable duty credit scrips to notified service providers based on net foreign exchange earnings, usable against central duties including basic customs duty, and covers nine broad service sectors.