Exporters Likely To Get Renewed sops.

New Delhi Amid the uncertain economic scenario in the developed world, the government is likely to provide incentives to exports marred by rising input costs and high interest rate regime. A senior commerce ministry official said that a package for exports is likely to be announced in 2-3 weeks.

“Times have changed, budget conditions have changed. In another week DEPB (Duty Entitlement Pass Book) will die... We need to rejig that package. Secondly, interest rates have radically changed between last year and now,” commerce secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters here.

He added that exchange rates have also severely hit the foreign currency-denominated credit.

“Now what we have do is to put together a package which would look at issues (like) how do you address interest rate hike, how do you address access to foreign currency denominated credit and issues relating to packaging credit and then of course question of incentives and rejigging,” the commerce secretary said.

Despite witnessing robust growth in exports, the secretary has been cautioning the exporters that the summer is not going to be easy for them as the world economic situation is in doldrums.

Exports grew over 54 per cent to $134 billion in the April-August period.

The package which was given post-2008 financial crisis, by way of subsidised interest rates, was withdrawn in March. In August last year, the government had extended sops worth Rs 1,052 crore to exporters, mainly for the labour-intensive textile, handicrafts and leather sectors, struggling under uncertain global conditions.

In all likelihood, that the government may restore interest subsidy for exporters to maintain the country’s competitiveness in the global market. “The small exporters may get subsidy between 3.5-3.75 per cent, whereas for large corporates it may be 2 per cent subvention,” a source said.

The interest subvention scheme, which lapsed on March 31, offered 2 per cent discount on the interest rate charged by banks.

Source : expressindia.com