Fresh round of export sops in Jan.

NEW DELHI: India plans another round of export sops in January next year to help the country’s manufacturers tide over weak demand in their traditional markets such as the US and EU.

“Although things have improved worldwide, we have to remember that demand is still weak in the EU and the US,” commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said, adding that the government plans to announce new incentives in January next year.

“Sectoral consultations will begin soon and the DGFT (director general of foreign trade) will complete the process next month. Thereafter, we will decide which sectors need more sops,” he said in New Delhi on Thursday after a meeting of the board of trade.

The sectors that might benefit include textiles, leather, handicrafts and some engineering goods, although all these sectors too have started registering growth.

The board of trade, a body of top policymakers and industrialists that provides a forum for dialogue between the government and business, reviewed export performance in the post-slowdown period. It called for a detailed review to identify sectors that still needed policy support and decided to set up a working group to suggest a strategy to double exports to $400 billion over the next three years.

The working group that includes Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon, Venu Srinivasan of TVS Motors, Pawan Munjal of Hero Honda Motors , R Seshasayee of Ashok Leyland, SBI chairman O P Bhatt and Chanda Kocchar of ICICI Bank will submit its report in three months.

“The working group will identify three thrust areas and three regions for promoting exports,” Mr Sharma said. Based on these inputs , the commerce department will finalise a long-term strategy for boosting exports to $400 billion from $200 billion expected this year.

Overall exports have grown 26.8% to $121.4 billion in the April-October 2010 period. But, disaggregated data shows that in the April-July period, newer markets such as Africa and Latin America grew by more than 50%, whereas the EU recorded a much lower 15% growth.

The last round of exports sops worth Rs. 1,000 crore were announced in August this year. These included loans at discounted rates and duty-free import scrips -- entitlements allowing duty-free import of inputs that can even be traded in the market -- for export of designated products to identified markets.
All the present incentives are valid till the end of the fiscal and there won’t be a change in their status, an official clarified, ruling out any curbs in incentives already there.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com