More sops for exporters in the offing

The government is all set to roll out more sops for exporters in an attempt to support the growth of labor intensive sectors such as textiles, leather and engineering goods, as per the recent announcement made by the Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on the sidelines of CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership in New Delhi. These aforesaid sectors were at the receiving end during recession.

Addressing the media the minister informed that more incentives would be flowing in for labor intensive sectors, which primarily comprise of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Further, Sharma appreciated Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee for showing understanding and sensitivity in continuing support for some of the sectors.

Furthermore, the minister also informed the media that his aim is to double India‘s exports by 2014 with an incremental rise of 20-25 percent year-on-year basis, while the long-term objective being to accelerate the percentage of merchandise as well as services trade.

While speaking to Mukherjee, the minister had apparently spoken about issues like extending of subsidized export credit to sectors like leather and engineering goods for yet another year as it was done in case of handicrafts, carpets, handlooms and SMEs in the Budget.

The 2 percent interest subsidy scheme which was supposed to expire on March 31 2010, was carried forward for yet another year in the Budget, however, only for selected sectors.

Exports which had started sliding since October 2008 given the slump in the global demand have started recovering since November 2009. Now it’s the time to consolidating gains, said the Minister, however, he went to add that globally the trade has contracted by about 14 percent.