Benefits under Served From India Scheme

We provide consultancy services in India and abroad. We wish to import certain equipment for our office in Mumbai from where we operate. The equipment would be used for our domestic as well as export business. Can we obtain benefits under the Served From India Scheme of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) for importing such equipment, even if the equipment is used for our domestic business.

Served From India Scheme is applicable for Indian service providers rendering services listed in Appendix 41 of Handbook of Procedures 2009-14 (we understand that consulting services are covered under this Appendix) and having free foreign exchange earning of at least R10 lakh in the current financial year. The eligible service providers are entitled to a Duty Credit Scrip equivalent to 10% of the free foreign exchange earned during current financial year which may be used for import/domestic procurement of eligible capital goods, including spares, office equipment, professional equipment, office furniture, etc. Further, the imports of goods may relate to any service sector business of the applicant. Accordingly, you should be entitled to avail of the benefit of the Duty Scrip under the SFIS scheme for import of office equipment provided such equipment is being used for your eligible service business (irrespective of whether domestic or exports). However, we would like to highlight that a meeting of the Policy Interpretation Committee of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade was held in December 2011 wherein it was decided that benefits of SFIS are not available to brands created outside India as the objective of the FTP is to encourage only Indian Brands and not incentivize any brand created outside India. Accordingly, even though the FTP itself does not specifically debar availability of SFIS to brands created outside India, the above interpretation is likely to be followed by the authorities to deny the SFIS Scrip to non-Indian brands.