New Delhi, Mar 10 (UNI) The government today announced constitution of a Committee for the formulation of All Industry rates of Duty Drawback for 2006-07, with the objective to expand the coverage of Scheme by including new items and to provide adequate neutralisation of the customs and Central Excise Duties as well as service tax.

The Committee is to be headed by Dr Saumitra Chaudhuri, Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Mr S. B. Mohapatra, Secretary to the Government of India (Retired) and Mr T.R. Rustagi, Chief Commissioner of Customs&Central Excise (Retired) will be Members.

The Committee has the Joint Secretary (Drawback) as the Secretary and will be serviced by the Drawback Division, Department of Revenue.

The Committee will interact with the administrative Ministries, Export Promotion Councils, Commodity Boards, trade bodies and other stake holders so as to elicit their views on the existing Duty Drawback Scheme and work out the modalities for calculation of duty drawback and suggest All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback for 2006-2007.

The Committee has been asked to factor in the incidence of service tax on exports in drawback rates. It will also conduct field visits to study specific production processes, as it may consider necessary for formulation of All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback.

The Committee will submit its report to the Ministry of Finance by April 15, 2006.

UNI GS VD DS1607