Sharma meets export bodies, reviews downfall

Anand Sharma at a meeting with the Export Promotion Councils, in New Delhi on July 01, 2013.

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SME Times News Bureau | 02 Jul, 2013
The Union Minister for Commerce & Industry Anand Sharma Monday chaired a meeting with the members of Export Promotion Councils to discuss the measures to boost export and seek suggestions to remove the bottlenecks for the exporters.

The meeting assumes significance in the light of worrying Current Account Deficit (CAD) scenario.

Addressing the exporters, Sharma said that the rising trade deficit has a cascading impact on CAD. Last year, exports reached USD 300.2 billion, while imports touched USD 491.9 billion, leaving a deficit of USD 191 billion up from USD 183 billion the previous year.

The minister cited weakening global demands along with developments like mining restrictions in Goa and Karnataka, and unprecedented rise in gold import as the major contributors.

The exporters put forward their demands for expansion of incentive schemes and a smoother regime for various clearances. Sector-specific councils submitted their inputs.

Acknowledging the importance of high-tech products, Sharma said that "we had announced that export of high- tech products will be encouraged. The list is under preparation. Emphasis on value-added products will be given."

Regarding the differential rate of credit, Sharma stressed that "same needs to be provided for exporters as interest subvention still falls well short of global lending rates."

He further stated that it is crucial as Indian exporters in any eventuality have to deal with high transaction costs on account of infrastructure bottlenecks. He indicated that he will take it up when the meeting with Prime Ministers happens. At the same time, efforts will be made to bring down transaction cost through Electronic Data Exchange.

"24 x 7 custom clearance at ports will be pursued in a mission mode and senior Ministry officials will visit the major ports to expedite it at the earliest," he added.

Sharma exhorted the export bodies to focus on SMEs who account for sizeable chunk of our exports. Furthermore, he said that exporters should rise up to the challenge and commensurate performance should be visible.

The meeting was attended by among others FICCI President Naina Lal Kidwai and FIEO President Rafeeque Ahmed along with heads of major Export Promotion Councils.

President of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Rafeeq Ahmed said, "While the world trade grew, our exports witnessed a decline. This is a serious cause of concern."

"There is strong relationship in exports. Unless manufacturing picks up in India, it will be difficult to push exports. Our focus should be to make manufacturing competitive and facilitate flow of investment in manufacturing, which has basically dried up in recent times."

While complimenting the minister for agreeing to their demand to increase MDA threshold limit and entitlements, FIEO chief said, "We hope that additional funds would be made available to give effect to such announcement as our present allocation under MDA is based on pre-existing criteria."

"I would re-iterate my plea to form a planned Export Development Scheme for a period of 5 years with sufficient corpus equivalent to at-least 0.5 percent of country's exports to put focus on marketing which is seriously lacking in micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) exporters," he added.