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The continuous fall in exports can be checked in the remaining months of the fiscal with help from the government in the form of marketing assistance, lowering of interest rates and transaction costs, easier disbursement of incentives and increase in incentive rates, said SC Ralhan, President, The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).
“FIEO is of the view that Indian exporters have the ability to face global challenges and take forward the country’s export growth if the necessary government support is made available,” Ralhan said in an interaction with BusinessLine .
The Federation has asked the government to consider its demands which include reducing the cost of credit, immediate re-introduction of interest subvention scheme of 3 per cent, timely release of shipping bills for claim of benefits under the Merchandise Export Incentive Scheme (MEIS), increase in MEIS benefits and reduction in transaction costs.
Global factorsThe continuous decline in exports for the past nine months, especially the negative double digit decline since January, has been mainly due to contraction in global trade and softening of the prices of the key agricultural and industrial inputs coupled with currency market swings and lower commodity prices in the global market, Ralhan said.
FIEO has also suggested to the government that export competitiveness could be increased through infrastructure support and reduction in transaction costs.
“Procurement and execution of order is entirely the entrepreneur’s effort. However, the government should support aggressive marketing in such challenging times. Visibility is going to benefit Indian companies once the global situation improves. We need to showcase what we can offer to the world and be persistent in the market,” Ralhan said.
Since Indian exports are already down by over 15 per cent in the first five months of the fiscal, the focus has to be on quickly bringing exports into the positive territory and then offsetting the losses made in the first five months.
Difficult target“While we are optimistic that things will improve from here, but at the moment, even touching $300 billion of exports in this financial year looks difficult,” Ralhan said.
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