Time to grab opportunities in exports & imports: Sitharaman

 The Dollar Business Bureau The Union Commerce Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, said ‘the Government of India is not of the view that the China’s economy is in receding position,’ expressing views over the effect of receding China’s economy on Indian global market. In this regard, she said, “It is up to the businessmen and industrialists of the country to grab opportunities and increase their market share in their respective sectors by manufacturing and supplying quality products at competitive market prices in the global markets.” Pointing out to the exports-imports profile analysis of India-China trade, the Union Minister emphasized on sectors like Pharmaceuticals, Information Technology (IT), IT-Enabled Services (ITES), Auto Components, Agro Products, Tourism, Film & Entertainment, as India’s export interest to China.  While informing that various promotional schemes by the Ministries support exports, she called the exporters to also avail duty free import of capital goods under Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) Scheme and raw materials under Advance Authorisation Scheme. Speaking on the measures to increase foreign trade, the Minister said the Foreign Trade Policy schemes like Focus Market Scheme, Market Linked Focus Product Scheme, Focus Product Scheme and Duty Drawback Scheme offer better support to exports. She informed the exports during 2011-12 declined by 1.82%, whereas in 2013-14 increased by 4.66% and during a period from April-January of 2014-15, the exports have increased by 2.4% over year-on-year. On the industrial growth, Sitharaman said the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has come down over the last three years form from 2.9% in 2011-12 to 1.1% in 2012-13 and further to -0.1% in 2013-14. However, during the April-December of 2014-15, the IIP registered an increase to 2.1 % (Provisional), she added. In this regard, she informed the government is taking necessary steps to arrest slowdown in the industrial growth. Pruning the number of industries that can be considered as defence industries requiring industrial license, removal of stipulated annual capacity in the industrial license and deregulation of annual capacity for defence items for industry license, addressing the instances of inverted duty structure affecting the domestic industry, are among the other initiatives government is taking to boost the industrial sector, she added.  

This article was published on March 04, 2015.