Provide sops for exporters, says Sharma

Exporters asked to widen their market, go for higher value-added products

“As the preparation for the budget 2009-10 is on we are going to make a detailed presentation to the finance ministry on problems facing exporters. We will make recommendations for certain sector-specific and product-specific measures to boost export,” Commerce Minister Anand Sharma saidhere on Wednesday.
“We are having interactions with various export promotion councils,  exporters’ organisations and various chambers of trade and industry to seek their suggestions on how to promote export. Based on these interactions we will prepare a set of recommendations to the Finance Ministry for their incorporation in the coming Budget,” he said.

Demand fall

Apart from the forthcoming budget containing some export promotion measures, the new Foreign Trade Policy, which is to be announced in August, will incorporate a plethora of measures to stimulate export, Sharma said.
While acknowledging that exporters need some more stimulus package to beat the adverse impact of global slowdown that has shrunk demand for Indian merchandise in country’s major trading partners like U S and European Union (EU) countries, the Minister indicated that the Commerce Ministry was specifically working on incentives for labour-intensive export-oriented sectors like textile, leather and plantation.
“Some of the sectors like pharmaceuticals have started showing improvements in their export performance, but we need to provide more incentives to labour-intensive sectors,” Sharma said. Asked about the measures to make India’s export cost effective and more competitive, he said there was need for continuation of ongoing interest subvention scheme for exporters.

Reduction in rates

“We feel there is need for further reduction in interest rate for export to enable our exporters more competitive. We hope the Reserve Bank will take necessary measures in this regard,” Sharma said.
“As part of strategy to boost export we are asking exporters to tap new emerging markets in African and Latin American countries,” he said.     
Asked about prospects of export in the coming months, he said “Our assessment is that declining trend in export’s growth rate will continue till August September.
Thereafter we hope export will take an upward trend with expected improvement in the global economy.”
Corroborating Minister’s assessment about export prospect the Commerce Secretary G K Pillai said that the export had declined by nearly 30 per cent in May this year and earlier by to 33 per cent in April.