Amid global uncertainties, Goyal declines to put exports target for current year

Minister says that due to the ongoing war, economies of several countries have become weak and discretionary spending has come down

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said In FY23, despite the adverse conditions, India had clocked record merchandise and service exports of $770 billion. | Photo Credit: PTI

The Union Government has pressed pause on setting any exports target for FY24 considering the volatility and weakness in the global economy, which has been ravaged by the impact of the Russian war and high inflation, impacting discretionary spending.

Amid the uncertainties, the government has decided to evaluate the situation on the ground and take a pragmatic view.

Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, on Sunday declined to set any exports target for the current year.

“It will not be proper to give FY24 exports target now and we do not want to give any absurd number. Due to the ongoing war, the economies of several countries have become weak and discretionary spending has come down.”

“So in the next five months, we will be taking delegations of different export sectors to several countries to understand the situation on the ground and then to set our exports target. We will be organising buyer-seller meets and organise exhibitions to push our exports,” the Minister said.

In FY23, despite the adverse conditions, India had clocked record merchandise and service exports of $770 billion. In the previous two years, exports were to the tune of $676 billion and $500 billion respectively, the Minister said.

He said in preparation for the “Amritkaal” in 2047, the government had set an export target of $2 trillion by the year 2030 and he encouraged the exporters’ community to help achieve this target.

Mr. Goyal was speaking at an exports awards function organised by the Gem and Jewellery Exports Promotion Council (GJEPC) in Mumbai.

Free trade pacts

He said the two free trade agreements with the UAE and Australia had immensely helped the exporters’ community and the forthcoming ones would also increase the exports volume from India.

“We will be negotiating with the U.K., Canada, Israel and the EU for free trade agreements and it will help all of you,” the Minister said, adding several other countries had also lined up with applications to enter into free trade agreements with India.

Vipul Shah, Chairman, GJEPC, said all the free trade agreements, including the ones being negotiated, would help exporters to touch the $1 trillion mark in exports.

For FY 2022-23, the overall gem and jewellery exports grew 2.48% to ₹3,00,462.52 crore compared to ₹2,93,193.19 crore for the same period previous year.