FM agreed to provide competitiveness to Indian exports: S C Ralhan,FIEO

Finance Minister agreed to provide competitiveness to Indian exports in view of falling trends in exports:  S C Ralhan, President, FIEO In the wake of continuous fall in exports growth for the last six months, a delegation of exporters led by President, FIEO met the Hon’ble Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitely to appraise him of the tough global scenario and domestic constraints responsible for decline in exports. Mr Ralhan informed the Finance Minister that even excluding petroleum exports, the overall exports exhibited a decline of 8.9% in the first two months of the current fiscal while non-oil imports showed a growth of 4.3%. The order booking position of the Indian companies is not encouraging which reflect the challenges to be faced by the export sector in the following months and its impact on the employment in the sector. The important issues discussed by President, FIEO included the high cost of credit which needs to be addressed by immediately by introducing Interest Subvention Scheme from 1st April, 2015 and availability of Pre Shipment Credit in Foreign Currency (PCFC) for MSME. For augmenting liquidity of the export sector, FIEO suggested for refund of Duty Drawback, CENVAT refund and Service Tax Refund within 10 days time. The Hon’ble Finance Minister was supportive of both the issues and ensured timely action in the matter. Mr Ralhan urged that the MSME sector should be encouraged to adopt new technology by extension of Technology Up-gradation Fund. The threshold limit of Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) may be increased from Rs.1 Crore to Rs.5 Crore consequent on proposed increase in threshold limit for small & medium companies. FIEO Chief also argued for Market Development support either through a planned Scheme with sizable corpus or through tax deduction under Income Tax for overseas expenditure relating to marketing. FIEO delegation also suggested time bound implementation of EDI amongst all community partners by 31st of March, 2016 and reduction of transaction cost by permitting single MEIS application for all EDI ports, acceptance of tracking report at least in respect of Status Holders, dispensing with verification of scrips etc. Finance Minister assured to look into the matter with a view to impart competitiveness to exports. Finance Minister also said that Indian exports have declined consequent to decline in imports of our major trading partners. For Agriculture exports, Finance Minister agreed to look into the issue of providing support in respect of commodities in which MSP is much above the international prices so as to provide an avenue for their exports.

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