Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry, has informed that as part of further facilitation of the export sector a clarification has since been issued by CBEC in respect of architectural services, general insurance services, market research services, storage and warehousing services and knowledge & technology based services for treating them as export of services outside India. This will remove the existing ambiguity and enable refund of service tax paid in this regard. He further assured that efforts would be on for making suitable administrative changes for ensuring early refund of Service Tax claims and further simplification of refund procedures.

Addressing the press conference, Shri Kamal Nath stated that the Indian exports which were US $ 63 billion during the year 2003-04 have reached US$ 162 billion by 2007-08 recording an average annual growth rate in excess of 25 per cent. "This year, i.e., during 2008-09 we did achieve a growth of 30.9% till September 2008 but there has been a setback recently due to the global recession. We hope to achieve a target of US$ 175 billion in exports this year. The increased economic activity has resulted in generation of around 140 lakh new jobs in the export sector. Our exports have diversified and grown. To cite a few examples, our exports have increased nine-fold to Brazil, seven-fold to Pakistan, five-fold to Mauritius, four-fold to Egypt & Vietnam and three-fold to Singapore & Turkey. Today, Indian exporters are exporting to almost all the countries in the world including such places like Marshall Islands, Greenland, Barbados, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Burundi and Somalia", he added. Export of services designation enables service tax refunds for specified professional and techno commercial services and prompts administrative simplification. A clarification treats Export of Services outside India to include architectural, general insurance, market research, storage and warehousing, and knowledge and technology services, removing ambiguity and enabling claimants to seek service tax refund where tax was paid. The executive also committed to administrative changes to expedite refunds and simplify refund procedures for affected service exporters.