Corporate India and small and medium enterprises should take a "positive cue" from the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) surprise move to cut repo rate by 25 basis points, Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Industry Minister, has said.

"I will still call it (the RBI move) cautionary. I welcome it... however small it is", Sitharaman said at a press conference post the inaugural session of the CII Partnership Summit 2015 at Jaipur on Thursday.

She noted that the move came ahead of the Union Budget and at a time when the economy was showing sustained level of revival with subdued inflation.

To a query on whether the RBI rate cut could lead to lower cost of credit for the export sector, Sitharaman said it would be be difficult to come to any such conclusion immediately.

She however admitted that those exporters who had access to finance abroad were better placed than those who looked at domestic financial institutions for meeting their credit needs. "The level playing field is not there and this has not so far been addressed", Sitharaman said.

srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in