Exporters Bear Brunt Of Rises in Cost of Credit, Says Anand Sharma.

New Delhi, Oct 7 (ANI): Stating that the cost of credit has been a matter of very serious concern to the industry, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Friday said the exporters are facing challenges for there has been a holding up of orders because of the global slowdown.
 
He, however, assured that the government would provide sops to the exporters in wake of the European sovereign debt crisis and global economic slowdown.

Sharma, who was present here to preside over a meeting with heads of export promotion councils (EPCs) of different commodities, said: "The cost of credit has been a matter of very serious concern to the industry. It has gone up considerably making the Indian manufacturing output much less competitive globally. There is also the weakening of the rupee and the exporters which had placed orders are facing challenges because there has been a holding up of orders because of the global slowdown."

"We have a number of schemes, focus market scheme is there and market linked focused product scheme is there. So, the continuation of the schemes and wherever possible, again consistent with our approach of the foreign trade policy, which we had unveiled for five years in 2009 and it has been supplemented last year for market diversification which has done well and we talked about that and we will see what needs to be done," he added.

Anand Sharma had earlier met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the issues concerning exporters.

The government had earlier this year announced fiscal incentives worth billions to exporters of select products.

In fact, Sharma himself agreed to help out exporters in this tumultuous period.

"The challenges before the exporters and what we can do in the difficult situation are part of the process that has been in place for long. The Commerce Secretary, the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) and his team have been in regular touch with the exports councils, commodity boards and also with the industry," said Sharma.

"I have myself been interacting over the last six months and recently sectoral review has been undertaken both keeping in mind the global scenario or development in different regions of the world," he added.

Though the country's exports have shown a growth of 54 percent during the April-August period of the current fiscal, the trend is difficult to maintain, keeping in mind the continuation of the slowdown in the US and Europe. (ANI)

Source : newstrackindia.com