Budget wishlist: EEPC seeks technology upgradation fund

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SME Times News Bureau | 01 Mar, 2012
Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), a nodal body of engineering exporters, has urged for a technology upgradation fund in their Budget wishlist for boosting competitiveness in view of an ambitious exports target of USD 125 billion by FY14 for the sector, reports media.

"...Its high time they must do something. Without technology upgradation fund competing with other countries like China will be very difficult. We have submitted it to the Ministry," Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) Executive Director R Maitra told agency.

In its strategy paper, the Commerce ministry has set an exports target of USD 500 billion by FY14. For engineering sector which accounts for about one-fourth of the country's total merchandise shipments, a target of USD 125 billion been fixed for the period.

Maitra said the council has submitted its plan to the Finance Ministry for a technology upgradation corpus which would be monitored both by the industry and government.

"...Industry has to contribute certain percent, balance has to come as a soft loan or interest free loan from the government," he said.

Engineering exports grew by 21 percent year-on-year to USD 49.7 billion during April-January of this fiscal.

Maitra said the exporting community "do not forsee much" growth during this fiscal due to global demand slowdown.

"The engineering exports in this fiscal will remain at USD 60 billion as they were in FY11," he added.

He also raised concerns over the impact of recent rupee fluctuations on the sector's growth.

During the April-January period this fiscal, overall exports aggregated USD 242.8 billion, a year-on-year growth of 25 percent, thanks to the surge witnessed in the early months of the fiscal.

From a peak of 82 percent in July, export growth slipped to 44.25 percent in August, 36.36 percent in September and 10.8 percent in October.