The Foreign Trade Policy 2013-14 has evoked a mixed response from the industry and the business chambers. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President S. Gopalakrishnan said the steps announced could help in reviving investors’ confidence in SEZs. “Granting interest subvention to all the sectors will help in strengthening exports performance,” he added.
FICCI Senior Vice-President Sidharth Birla said the package contained a number of positive measures which would help boost exports in 2013-14. “Having a single zero duty EPCG scheme that will now be available to all sectors is a much-needed step in the right direction,” he said.
The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President, Rafeeque Ahmed, rued that there were no big ticket announcements in the policy. He said FIEO had been pressing for the creation of $2 billion export development fund, which was not granted.
Textile bodies
The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and EEPC India welcomed the policy, saying it would help in boosting textiles and engineering exports.
“Measure like expansion of zero duty EPCG scheme, extension of TUFS benefits to EPCG, announcements on promotion of incremental exports and widening the ambit of market and product focus scheme will help in promotion of garment exports from India,” AEPC chairman A. Shaktivel said in a statement.
Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) also hailed the FTP announcements, stating that extending zero duty EPCG Scheme benefit to the TUFS beneficiaries was a request that the industry had been making for quite sometime.
It also welcomed the extension of 2 per cent interest subvention on export credit up to March 31, 2014 and inclusion of made-ups for this benefit.
