The finance ministry has asked its commerce counterpart to assess the revenue implication of the proposed mega free-trade agreement RCEP, sources said.
In a letter to the commerce department, the revenue department also suggested it to form a joint team of officials to understand the revenue (customs duty foregone) implication of RCEP.
“The revenue secretary has written a letter to the commerce secretary to calculate the revenue impact of the proposed agreement,” they said.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is an agreement being negotiated by 16 countries since 2013. So far, 27 rounds of talks at the chief negotiators level have been conducted.
Several challenges in both goods and services sectors still persist and need to be resolved before reaching the conclusion of negotiations RCEP. The 16-member RCEP bloc has targeted to conclude the negotiations by November this year.