Rs.3,000 cr more for merchandise exports scheme from next year
In an effort to enhance outbound shipments from the country, the government has assured exporters of giving additional incentives up to Rs.3,000 crore under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) from next year. The Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia on Wednesday held a brainstorming session with the representatives of 27 export promotion councils and other export bodies and sought their suggestions to promote exports. In the meeting, the Commerce Secretary said that the allocations for export incentive schemes in the current financial year has been increased from Rs.18,000 crore to Rs.21,000 crore and “this amount was likely to be available for allocations in the coming year”, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement. Export promotion councils for various sectors including apparel, textile, leather, electronics & computer software, gem & jewellery, textiles, and engineering goods participated in the meeting. Apart from demanding higher incentives under the MEIS, major issues highlighted by the export promotion councils were related to refund of duty drawback, credit of interest subvention, delays in clearances, addition of more items under the MEIS and agreements with specific countries to promote exports of certain items. Engineering export promotion body EEPC India expressed concern over recent duty hikes on imported steel HR coils and several documentation related issues. EEPC Chairman Anupam Shah said because of repeated increases in import duty and safeguard duty on steel HR coils, the engineering industry finds itself in an inverted duty structure. “Duties on raw materials are higher than intermediate and finished products. Now there is a demand to raise the safeguard duty on CR and galvanized raw materials, which EEPC India had foreseen in its submission to the DG safeguards. If this is done, it will further lower engineering production and exports, apart from causing unemployment," Shah said. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) suggested product-specific strategy to improve international trade. It gave a list of 36 products that witnessed more than 6% growth in their exports during the past four years and said the government should focus on incentivising their shipments. The listed products are related to sectors like agriculture, textiles, gems and jewellery and engineering. The total exports of these 36 products from India in 2014 (Calendar year) was $45.58 billion, close to 14 % of the country’s total exports. And India’s share in world exports for these products was 6.5%. “If India can increase its share from 6.5% to 10 % in next three years, we can take our exports from $ 45.58 billion to over $110 billion in next three years,” said S C Ralhan, President of FIEO. Responding to the collective demand of amendments in the MEIS, the Commerce Secretary pointed out that the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 was drawn after extensive deliberations. “Hence it may not be possible to make changes very frequently and go back on the scheme.” She asked exporters to be flexible in their response to the changing economic scenario “with the changing paradigms/ dynamics of the export market”. She said exporters “should work in the spirit of give and take wherein getting access has to be complimented by giving access to markets.” The Commerce Secretary also said that special economic zones (SEZs) could be made as a “fulcrum of make In India” and the government was concentrating on agreements in multilateral forums to ensure “wider benefits” for exporting units. According to the latest data released by the Commerce Ministry, exports contracted 20.7% to $21.2 billion in August, the ninth consecutive month. Last year, the country's overall export was around $310 billion. India's exports target for 2020 is $900 billion.
October 08, 2015 | 3:15pm IST.
to success.