The Government has started consultations with the industry on the forthcoming annual Foreign Trade Policy that seeks to give a fillip to falling exports in a contracting world market.
“We have started the consultation process. I am meeting representatives from the industry to discuss the policy,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi on Monday.
Sharma met representatives from the Confederation of Indian Industry on Monday to get their views on the country’s export strategy.
“A wide variety of issues including the need for focussing on technology-related exports, to re-position in traditional areas like textile and leather, and to extend interest rate discount scheme for all exporters came up for discussion,” an industry representative told
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said in his Budget speech last week that his Ministry would support measures to boost exports in the FTP to be announced in March. Sharma, however, did not confirm a final date for the policy.
India’s exports declined 4.86 per cent in the April-January 2012-13 period to $239.68 billion compared with the corresponding period last year.
The Government announced two packages for exporters last year to help them deal with the global contraction in demand, especially in the EU and the US. These included cash incentives for exporting to specified markets and also for shipping certain products. Incentives were also given for incremental exports, over and above what exporters shipped the previous year.
The Government also extended a two per cent interest rate discount for exporters from the small industry and certain labour intensive export sectors.
“We would want most measures to be continued next year as well and also increase the list of beneficiaries of the interest rate subvention scheme,” a Commerce Department official said.