Centre provides Rs 8,450 cr relief to exporters

The Centre on Tuesday announced Rs 8,450 crore in new monetary incentives to labour-intensive exports to boost India's slowing foreign trade, help create jobs and guard the sector from the initial hiccups in GST implementation.

The relief came in the mid-term review of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP 2015-2020) unveiled by Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, who said the policy also aimed at helping double farmers' incomes by 2022 through a focused farm export policy.

The sectors which were expected to benefit from the incentives included leather, handicrafts, carpets, sports goods, agriculture, marine products, electronic components and project exports, each of which contributes immensely to job creation.

"The focus of the policy will be on exploring new markets and products as well as increasing India's share in traditional markets and products," Prabhu said. He said the incentives are over and above the ones announced for the textile sector last year.

The incentives included a 2% increase in the rates of the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and Services Export from India Scheme (SEIS).

Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said that exporters would be the biggest beneficiaries of the GST and promised to remove obstacles soon.

Of these incentives, Rs 749 crore were promised for leather and footwear, Rs 1,354 crore for agriculture and related items, Rs 759 crore for marine exports, Rs 369 crore for telecom and electronic items, Rs 921 crore for handmade carpets, Rs 193 crore for medical and surgical equipment, Rs 1,140 crore for textiles and readymade garments.

To facilitate the ease of foreign trade, the government also allowed duty-free imports for export on self-certification and raised validity for duty credit scrips to 24 months.

Trade accounts for 45% of the country's GDP, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said, adding the incentives now covered 8,000 of the total 12,000 lines of items of foreign trade.