Prabhu thanks Modi, Jaitley for addressing exporters’ GST issues

New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for addressing exporters' issues in the GST Council meeting, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday said his ministry would make maximum effort on promoting exports.

"Thx @narendramodi ji @arunjaitley for addressing the exporters issues in #GSTCouncil. We shall together work on promoting exports," Prabhu said in a tweet following the 22nd meeting here of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council.

In a relief to exporters, the government on Friday announced that it would immediately refund exporters for the month of July and August through cheques from October 10 and October 18, respectively.

Following the day-long meeting of the GST Council, Jaitley told reporters that this would be an interim relief, and as a long term measure e-wallets will be created for all exporters by April 1, 2018, to carry forward the refund process.

"We are working in close coordination with @FinMinIndia to address GST related issues of exporters," Prabhu had said earlier in a separate tweet.

Earlier on Friday, Prabhu met with stakeholders, including leading exporters, Export Promotion Councils, associations and industry chamber representatives.

"Had extensive discussions with stakeholders on strategies to boost exports.We will work together to ensure exports led growth," he had tweeted after the meeting.

"We must align our standards with global standards. Benchmarking will stimulate exports,ensure India's integration with global value chain," he said in another tweet.

"We must enhance competencies, tap into the global value chain which will provide fillip to our efforts to enhance exports."

According to an official release here, the Minister asked the export promotion councils and industry associations to prepare a vision statement for their product group.

"He also stressed on the importance of export led growth and assured stakeholders of working together to boost exports," a Commerce Ministry statement here said.