Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday referred to the decline in goods exports in May 2016 at just (-)0.79 per cent saying, while the fall — that began in December 2014 — was being “arrested”, the government was studying the contraction in a sector-wise manner to extend help through interest subsidy and other incentives.
Merchandise exports have been shrinking for 18 consecutive months since December 2014, but the fall in May 2016 at (-)0.79 per cent was the lowest since then.
“I can see that the fall (in goods exports) is getting arrested and pick up is slowly showing up. The pick up may be slow, but the bottoming out has happened. From now, it (exports) will show a slow but steady rise.... It is still a situation where we have to do a lot more to allow it (exports) to pick up,” Ms. Sitharaman told reporters on the sidelines of a FICCI event.
“It is a time when the help will have to be extended, whether in the form of interest subvention, or in the form of any kind of incentives for exports. We have been looking at (exports) sectorally,” she added.
On the 20 per cent duty imposed on sugar exports, Ms. Sitharaman said it was to ensure greater availability of the item in the domestic market. The Minister asserted that, “We do not want any speculative rise in sugar prices.”
Queried whether the government is mulling extending the Minimum Import Price on steel beyond August, Ms. Sitharaman replied that her Ministry would “talk” on it at the appropriate moment.
