New Delhi: Providing ease to exporters affected by the rupee appreciation in the exchange market, the administration declared they would be relieved from the tax on services rendered by road transport, ports and railways.

Up to now, the administration has been collecting 12 per cent service tax together with 3 per cent education cess on services availed.

Exporters already get a refund of service tax paid by them on input services relating to exports. The duty drawback scheme also factors in the service tax paid on input services intended for exporting goods and services.

In a further relief to exporters, a Finance Ministry statement stated, “The Government has issued a notification providing refund of service tax paid by exporters on four taxable services, which are not in the nature of input services but could be linked to export goods.”

Exporters had already received a financial package of Rs 1400 crore from the Finance Minister in July, particularly to the handloom, handicraft, textile and other labour-intensive industries, in order to soften the impact of rupee admiration. The Indian currency (rupee) has valued by more than 8 per cent since January this fiscal (2007).

Although Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath had declared government’s aim to relieve exporters from service tax in the April supplement of Annual Foreign Trade Policy, the Finance Ministry took around 6-months to issue a notification in this regard.