SME Times News Bureau
Exporters association
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) on Wednesday said the downward
trend in labour-intensive sectors of exports not good for the economy.
Reacting to officially
released foreign trade data for exports, FIEO President Ganesh Kumar Gupta said the
export data of USD 26.07 billion with a growth of 0.64 percent is not at all
encouraging as almost all the labour-intensive sectors.
Leather & leather
products, gems & jewellery, engineering goods, cotton yarns/fabs/made-ups,
man-made yarn/fabs/made-ups, carpets, marine products, few plantations and various
other sector of exports dominated by MSMEs were into negative territory in
April.
These sectors are still facing
the problem of liquidity besides various other challenges including global
trade war, protectionism, fragile global conditions and constraints on the
domestic front, Gupta said.
The FIEO chief said that there
may be front loading of exports in the past as exporters were apprehensive of
withdrawal of GSP in US and development in Iran.
Only 14 out of 30 major
product groups were in positive territory during April 2019 including
petroleum, organic & inorganic chemicals, drugs & pharma, RMG of
all textiles, electronic goods, ceramic products & glassware, handicrafts,
commodities besides some plantation, agri and dairy products have shown
positive growth during the month.
Gupta also expressed his
concerns on the rising trade deficit primarily on account of swelling crude
import bill with further northward movement of prices and ban on Iranian
imports along with rising gold import.
He also opined that with
rising trade tensions between US and China, the global trade scenario may
further worsen, putting more pressure on Indian exports in months to come.
The uncertainty attached to it
will affect the flow of investment and add to currency volatility, he added.
Gupta said that domestic
issues including access to credit, cost of credit especially for merchant
exporters, interest equalization support to all agri exports, benefits on
sales to foreign tourists and exemption from IGST under Advance Authorization
Scheme with retrospective effect should be seriously looked into.
Besides these, budgetary support for marketing and
exports related infrastructure are some of the other key issues, which needs
immediate attention of the government, he added.