Exporters demand quick measures to stop foreign trade slide show

The Dollar Business Bureau 

  Continuing its downward trend for the 12^th consecutive month, India's merchandise exports declined to $20 billion in November, down 24.43% year on year, prompting export bodies to seek immediate government intervention. The cumulative value of exports for the period April-November also fell by 18.46% to $174.30 billion as against previous fiscal’s $213.77 billion, according to the latest data released by the Commerce Ministry. Of the total 30 product categories closely monitored by the government, exports of 23 items have witnessed negative growth rate. Products from agriculture sector and those from engineering and petroleum segments registered the sharpest fall, the data said. Several exporters’ bodies have asked the government to take some immediate to revive the country’s outbound shipment. “Looking at the current trend, we expect to end the year with an export figure of somewhere in between $260-270 billion,” said S C Ralhan, President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO). Last year, the country’s outbound shipment crossed $310 billion. Ralhan said that the decline in global crude oil prices witnessed in the past few day is also expected to have further negative impact on India’s exports. He urged the government to revise the duty drawback rate for engineering sector as the raw material cost for the industry has increased manifold after imposition of safeguard duty on steel imports. Engineering export body EEPC India has also expressed concern over a further hike in input cost as the government is planning to fix minimum import price on steel. “..The worst hit are the exporters in the small scale who find their costs going up due to the government restricting steel imports and making their raw material expensive. The possible imposition of floor prices on steel imports would seriously affect SME exporters,” said TS Bhasin, Chairman of EEPC (Engineering Export Promotion Council). The country’s trade deficit, however, reduced to $87.54 billion during April-November this year as imports have also fell by more than 30% during the period. The total trade balance was estimated at $102.50 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal. Imports in November were valued at $29.79 billion as against $42.72 billion in the same month last year. Cumulative value of imports for the period April-November 2015-16 was $261.85 billion as against $316.28 billion, registering a negative growth of 17.21%, the data said.  

December 15, 2015  | 02:45pm IST