Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said Goods and Services Tax (GST) will boost the country’s export growth and that the GST regime has a fast-track process for refund of duties and taxes to exporters.
Significantly, she also said job creation is being prioritised with government policies and proposals before the Union Cabinet being analysed from an employment-generation perspective.
“The way in which fitment discussions have happened in the GST Council and the way commodities and services have been treated, the GST is only going to help in improving our exports and in making exports more competitive (in the global market),” Ms. Sitharaman told reporters.
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“Also, the refund mechanism has been fast-tracked with the assurance that amounts will be refunded within seven days of the receipt of complete application in most cases, and that all cases of exporters will be addressed within three days. The medium-term review of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) is being carried out to align FTP with GST.”
Job creation
On job creation, she said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen that proposals before the Union Cabinet and government policies are analysed from a perspective of generation of direct and indirect employment generation.
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On efforts to boost employment in the North East, the Commerce & Industry Ministry and NITI Aayog are in talks with the north-eastern states to soon bring out a new North East Industrial & Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP). The NEIIPP, 2007 had expired in March this year, she said.
On India’s exports, Ms. Sitharaman said the consecutive positive growth in shipments (witnessed in the past eight months) is a “sustainable trend”, adding that Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), Services Exports from India Scheme and Interest Equalisation Scheme have helped in improving India’s export performance.
As per the Commerce Ministry, exports that availed MEIS in FY’16 recorded a lesser contraction in growth as against those that did not make use of MEIS, while shipments that availed MEIS registered a positive growth in FY’17 vis-à-vis the negative growth in exports that did not avail MEIS during that fiscal.
India’s exports of consumption and hi-tech goods have increased, reflecting a shift to greater shipments of value-added goods from the country.
Africa, Latin America
Ms. Sitharaman said her ministry was making efforts to boost India’s exports to relatively new markets including Latin America and Africa. Appreciating India’s growing project exports to Africa, Japan has expressed interest in collaborating with India in this regard, she added.
On rupee appreciation impacting exports, the minister said Indian exporters are seized of the currency fluctuation, adding that though the rupee is market-determined, whenever there are extreme fluctuations in the currency, the RBI takes measures to address the situation.
On other issues, she said there was no plan to shift the Rubber Board from Kerala to the North East, adding that the government was making efforts to boost rubber exports. On Telangana government’s proposal for a new Turmeric Board, the minister said currently there is no move for a separate Turmeric Board as all spices fall under the Spices Board’s purview.She said, however, that there could be spice parks in that state dedicated to turmeric for value-addition and warehousing.
Ms. Sitharaman said the government was also favourably inclined to extend the Chennai-Vizag industrial corridor to Kolkata via Odisha.
On Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), she said the government was committed to continue with its policy reforms to ease norms, adding that the cabinet will soon consider the proposal to replace the Foreign Investment Promotion Board with a new mechanism.