Context: The Centre has suspended till 31st January 2022, a mandatory obligation imposed on exporters to obtain online Certificates of Origin (CoO) for every outbound consignment.
About Online Certificates of Origin

• It was put in place in late 2019 for exports to countries with whom India had a preferential trade pact.
• It was expanded to cover all merchandise exports from November.
• It was initiated by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

Benefits of it

• This online facility provides ‘ease of doing business’ to the exporting community
• It gives a verifiable authentication mechanism to the partner countries to confirm the genuineness of the issued CoOs through a QR code which adds credibility to the issued e-CoO.

Reasons for suspension
Several exporters across States had reported difficulties in registering on the e-CoO platform on

• the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) portal with the stipulated high-quality digital
• signature certificates and obtaining the certificates for their shipments.
• customs house agents had not been able to share data on exporters’ behalf, as the DGFT had not shared the API (Application Programming Interface) for the new platform.

Indian Exports

• India’s monthly merchandise exports have crossed $30 billion for seven months in a row
• It is largely on course to reach the government’s target of a record $400 billion in 2021-22

India’s Export Promotion Schemes

• Merchandise Exports from India Scheme: MEIS was introduced in the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-20, under MEIS, the government provides duty benefits depending on product and country.
• Service Exports from India Scheme: Under it, incentives are given by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to Service Exporters based in India to promote the export of services from India.
• Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Product (RoDTEP): It is a fully automated route for Input Tax Credit (ITC) in the GST (Goods and Service Tax) to help increase exports in India. It was started in January 2021 as a replacement for the MEIS, which was not compliant with the rules of the World Trade Organisation.
• Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies: Announced in March, 2019, RoSCTL was offered for embedded state and central duties and taxes that are not refunded through Goods and Services Tax (GST). It is available only for garments and made ups. It was introduced by the Ministry of Textiles.
• Previously, it was Rebate for State Levies (ROSL).