Govt to take more steps to boost exports: Nirmala

 The government is committed to making more moves to clear environment norms faster, work towards better rail-road connectivity and faster tax refunds as these are enablers to improving exports which have seen 13 consecutive months of decline.

“Many of the issues which are enablers to better exports have been identified, issues which may have a bearing on the forthcoming Budget were also raised,” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

The minister, who met export promotion councils, said her ministry will follow up with environment, textiles and finance for improving ease of doing business in the country and boost exports.

Foreign trade agreements with Asean countries were also discussed with the stakeholders as these have been hurting Indian exports. Exporters who participated in the meeting, said they suggested long term solutions to perk up exports with the government.

“We talked about long term solutions. We have raised issues related to FTAs which are impacting our exports,” he said adding “the government should think of discussing FTAs with regions like Africa, Latin America and CIS countries,” Engineering Export Promotion Council Chairman T S Bhasin said.

India’s exports have declined 15 per cent to $22.2 billion in December. The minister also added that the government has not yet decided on fixing the minimum import price on certain steel products.

Engineering Export Promotion Council Chairman T S Bhasin said that the government needs to take steps to boost exports. "We talked about long term solutions. We have raised issues related to FTAs which are impacting our exports," he said adding "the government should think of discussing FTAs with regions like Africa, Latin America and CIS countries".