NEW DELHI: The commerce and industry ministry has sought tax concessions for leather, plantation and service export sectors like tourism, hospitality and health besides products moving between SEZs in the proposed goods and services tax.Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said her ministry has also requested the finance ministry to keep out of the GST ambit the imports of capital goods which are used as input for exports.This includes import of raw material under the Advance Authorisation scheme and import of capital goods under Export Promotion Capital Goods authorisation scheme. The request is for an outright initial exemption for exporters rather than paying taxes first and seeking refund later as refunds take 6 to 8 months.“We asked for leather goods to be taxed at less than 5%...a lower tax on cement which currently faces levy of upto 30% in some cases,” Sitharaman said after meeting the GST Council .Though cement sector is marred by environmental concerns and excess capacity, she said a lower tax rate is important looking at the country’s infrastructural needs and government’s housing-for-all initiative.The ministry has pitched to keep plantations like coffee out of indirect tax ambit or be taxed at a low rate because “these are net foreign exchange earners which need to be given support.” The ministry has also sought lowering of import duty on gold in the Union Budget.Sitharaman also said the government will review the progress of the outcome of the 2015 Nairobi ministerial of WTO this month. “There will be post-Nairobi discussions…We will discuss our paper on trade facilitation in services, special safeguard mechanism and other issues.”