New Delhi, Feb. 9 The Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday that the merchandise exports in January would be around $14 billion, thereby maintaining positive growth for the third consecutive month after a 13-month contraction.
This would mean the export growth in January is around 13 per cent over the $12.4 billion in January 2009.
“Exports for January would be in the range of $14 billion and the total exports for 2009-10 would be $165-170 billion,” the Commerce Secretary, Dr Rahul Khullar, told reporters during an Assocham event.
The official data for January have not yet been released. Exports for April-December 2009 were $117.58 billion. In 2008-09, exports were $186 billion.
Dr Khullar said the Commerce Ministry would decide on the roll-back of stimulus for exporters only in April, but said there would be a selective withdrawal of these sops.
“If bad times are over for some sectors, there is no justification to continue stimulus for them. But we should continue to help those sectors that have not yet recovered,” he said.
Sector-wise analysis
The stimulus withdrawal would depend on the sector-wise analysis of the performance of exports in 2009-10 and on the allocation for the Commerce Ministry in the forthcoming Budget, Dr Khullar said.
On the criterion for withdrawing stimulus for export sectors, he said, “We are not narrow-minded about these things. We look at everything as a whole. For instance, in textiles, readymade garments did badly, but the manmade fibres did well. Now, should I withdraw the incentives to manmade fibres and give it only to readymade garments? I have not done that yet, nor do I intend to.”
On the Budget package for exporters, Dr Khullar said there is some consensus between the Commerce and the Finance Ministries on the direct and indirect taxes proposals part of this package. Then there are also general propositions such as extension of tax holidays for Export-Oriented Units and Software Technology Parks as well as interest subsidy for exporters.
He, however, added that a clearer view will emerge only after the Finance Minister's meeting with the Commerce Minister this week on the Commerce Ministry's Budget proposals.
Source : Business Line