With the Budget just a week away, the finance ministry has moved ahead on a number of proposals made by the Kelkar task force on indirect taxes.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs has issued a circular relaxing the norms for exporters to claim rebate on the central value-added tax (cenvat).

It has also neutralised duties and allowed a greater degree of self-certification for claiming drawback facilities. The board said it had incorporated these measures because they had already been examined by the Kelkar task force.

In order to claim full duty drawback, exporters had to produce a certificate from the department saying that they had not availed of cenvat facility, which created problems.

Therefore, it has been decided that manufacturer-cum-exporters, who are not registered with the central excise board, will not be required to furnish such a certificate, the CBEC has said, adding that a self declaration will be sufficient.

The step is expected to encourage small-scale exporters to go in for larger exports.

The board has also decided that in case the exporters have applied for a brand rate of duty drawback, they may be permitted the drawback at the all-industry rate.

This will reduce the time taken for issuing brand rates, which normally takes more than a couple of months.

The department has also ruled that companies will not require certification by drawback authorities for inputs used in manufacturing a product.

A certificate issued by the manufacturer-cum-exporter would suffice unless an investigation showed that there had been a misdeclaration, the board added.