Exporters may get additional incentives for selling products in targeted markets and have better access to dollar credit as part of the foreign trade policy to be announced next month.

“We will be looking at those markets where targeted exports can take place. The industry has rightly raised the issue of cost of credit, availability of credit and need for dollar credit window for manufacturing exports,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters on Friday after his consultations with industry chamber FICCI.

Sharma is gathering inputs from various industry organisations and export promotion councils on the measures that could help exporters deal with the continued slowdown in world demand.

With the current account deficit assuming worrying proportions and with the Government not having many options to lower the country’s import bill, policy makers are looking for more ways to boost falling exports.

In fact, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in his Budget speech promised that he would support measures to boost exports in the FTP.

Exports in April-January 2012-13 were down 4.86 per cent to $239.68 billion. A marginal increase of 0.01 per cent in overall imports to $406.85 billion pushed up trade deficit during the period to $167.16 billion compared with $154.89 billion in the previous year.

The Government announced two incentive packages to boost exports in the on-going fiscal, but contracting demand in the Western markets and lukewarm demand in large Asian countries have kept over-all exports in the negative zone.

>amiti.sen@thehindu.co.in

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