Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 5 (IANS) Exporters and the industry welcomed the measures the government announced Tuesday to boost foreign trade, saying these would help achieve the $500 billion export target by 2013-14.

In annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma announced a series of measures, including interest subsidy and market diversification, to boost foreign trade.

“All these measures would definitely give boost to Indian exports and would help India achieve its export target of $500 billion by 2013-14,” said Adi Godrej, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president.

Through the policy, he said, the government has addressed most of the concerns of exporters.

Rafeeq Ahmed, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), said the incentives announced in the annual supplement exceeded industry expectations and it will have a positive impact on the country’s foreign trade.

“This has exceeded our expectations. Labour-intensive sectors like textiles have been the thrust area of the foreign trade policy. We welcome the steps,” said Ahmed.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) president R.V. Kanoria said the measures announced in the policy will help boost exports and achieve this year’s target of 20 percent increase.

“The positive move of allowing duty-free scrips under export promotion schemes for payment of excise duty is worth special mention. This is indeed significant and will help exporters in procuring from domestic manufacturers,” said Kanoria.

For addressing the problem of widening trade deficit, the FICCI president said export promotion measures should be accompanied by steps to contain rising imports.

Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) chairman A. Sakthivel said the government had accepted all the demands of textiles industry, which would help boost garments exports.

“This is the first time when the minister has given whatever demands AEPC made on behalf of apparel sector,” said Sakthivel.

Incentives to textiles sector include two percent interest subvention, two percent market linked focus product scheme to US and Europe and for giving a new post-export promotion capital goods scheme.

The Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) welcomed the measures but said these are at best tactical and have to be supplemented with a strategic thrust to take advantage of the depreciation of the rupee which is here to stay in the short and medium term.