The commercial tax department of Bihar has signed an agreement with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for sharing of foreign exchange realisation data.
The sharing of this data, which is also called as eBRC (Electronic Bank Realisation Certificate) data, makes it easy for exporters to claim tax refunds like VAT from states.
"BRC can be used by state government departments for ensuring refund of VAT to eligible exporters," the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.
So far, commercial tax departments of 13 states including including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Haryana have signed agreement with DGFT for receiving e-BRC data for VAT refund purposes.
The statement further said that so far 100 banks operating in India, including foreign banks and cooperative banks have uploaded more than 1.5 crore e-BRCs on to the DGFT server.
The eBRC project created an integrated platform for receipt, processing and subsequent use of all bank realisation related information by exporters, banks, central and state government departments.
Earlier, the banks issued physical copy of BRC to exporters and no data mining or analysis was possible, it said.
"The exporters suffered most as they had to run to banks and government departments for claiming benefits," it added.
In addition, Ministry of Finance, Enforcement Directorate and Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) have also signed agreements with DGFT for receiving e-BRC data.
