Exporters To Get 50 Per Cent Money Back For Testing Their Products In India

With the dawn of the NPE 2.0 era, the government is expected to unveil policies that are certain to enhance exports. In this article, we look at a scheme that is expected to provide financial relief to those testing their products in India prior to exporting them.

- Baishakhi Dutta

The Market Access Initiative (MAI) is an export promotion scheme designed to promote India’s exports on a sustained basis during the 10th Five Year Plan period. Through this scheme, assistance is being provided to export promotion organisations, trade promotion organisations and exporters to reduce the costs related to testing products, accessing new markets and increasing their share in existing markets. In the process, India’s exports should get a much-needed boost.

Till recently, the scheme allowed reimbursements to exporters only for tests that were done abroad. With effect from January 7, 2019, the government has allowed exporters to be reimbursed to a certain extent for tests done on their products in India—to qualify for the CE marking or get UL approval.

Revised charges

When the MAI scheme was first launched, the Indian government allowed a maximum of 1 million per annum per exporter to test its products abroad. Last year, with effect from February 16, 2018, the government had revised the reimbursement rate and raised this ceiling to 5 million per annum per exporter. With the onset of the New Year, electronics exporters in the country received the good news that the government had extended the scheme to cover testing done in India too. Besides, the ceiling has been further raised to 20 million per annum per exporter, with the reimbursements from the government remaining 50 per cent only.

Ashish Saurikhia, policy coordinator, ELCINA, hails this move as a major step taken by the government to promote high quality, certified engineering products for export.

Important facts