Centre to announce new package of sops this week
Concerned over the declining exports for the seventh consecutive month, Commerce Secretary S. R. Rao, on Tuesday, announced that the government would announce a new package of sops for the exporting community by the end of this week.
“Commerce Minister Anand Sharma will be announcing a new package for boosting exports by the end of this week. There has been a slight improvement in exports and the government will give a boost for the last quarter to post a good growth,” he told reporters here.
Exports continued the declining trend and registered a 4.17 per cent dip at $22.3 billion during November. These stood at $23.2 billion in the year-ago period. However, imports grew by 6.35 per cent to $41.5 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $19.28 billion. During April-November this fiscal, shipments have shrunk by 5.95 per cent to $189.2 billion.
Mr. Rao said although shipments were declining, the contraction had been slightly checked during the first eight months of the fiscal. During April-October, exports were down by 6.18 per cent. He hoped that in the last quarter of the fiscal (January-March), the export performance would pick up.
The Commerce Secretary said the continuous rise in crude oil imports had pushed the import bill to $318.7 billion during April-November 2012. “What is most distressing is increased demand in petroleum products. Crude oil imports continue to be very high. It is a cause of worry as it impacts current account deficit,” he added. Oil imports in November increased by 16.7 per cent year-on-year to $14.5 billion. Non-oil imports grew by 1.5 per cent to $27 billion.
Keywords: November exports data, economic slowdown, trade deficit, India, economy
Quick fixes would not do any good in the long term. As per the top consulting firms reports the govt needs to devise a fast track mechanism to deal with host of issues to compete in the international market.
Exporters face lot of hurdles at customs and other Govt department like
DGFT offices to get the little FOCUS incentives or so. The cost of
Exports have gone-up. Many consultants enter the so called EXPORT
Promotion business, without knowing the little about the
rules/procedures etc etc. They just charge to get the things done in
the Govt departments. Time , now the department should reduce the Govt
net work on the exports. Difficult days ahead for exporters.
Not sure how this is worked. Going through the Apparel export
situation, Tiruppur a knit city in the South does not have electricity
for almost 8-10 hours. How can the factories meet delivery schedule.
The duty draw back which sometimes back was upto 20%-30% is now only
7.5%. On what margin do you expect to export. My last visit to the
city saw 30% of the Exporting factories have shifted to local
production. Countries like Bangladesh has been given special
incentives by European government.There are enough orders in US &
Europe these are either being diverted to Bangladesh or China. A good
governance can surely help to revive the apparel sector. Its up to the
government to decide if the Apparel Industry has to survive.
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