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Export review complete; sops on anvil

Exporters, especially from labour-intensive segments, can expect some additional sops in the near future as the commerce ministry has completed its second sectoral review.

The Commerce Ministry had started its review of exports on April 1 for the second time in four months to finalise incentives to encourage shipments, to help achieve the $200-billion target in the current fiscal. The review ended last week.
"The review is complete and now the Minister (Anand Sharma) has to take a call," an official said.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma in May had indicated that sectors that are yet to recover from the impact of the demand slowdown in global markets could get government support.

According to a senior commerce ministry official, incentives could be shuffled among different sectors. Those doing well like gems and jewellery may have to vacate some sops for the segments that are still in trouble like handicraft, leather, carpets, engineering goods and plastics.

After a similar exercise last December, the ministry had extended market and product-specific incentives to over 2,000 items. Again, in March this year, about 500 products, including electronics, agro-chemicals and garments, were given incentives to increase exports.

While exports, after shrinking for 13 months in a row, have started showing signs of recovery since last November, several sectors continue to lag.

Exports in the past fiscal declined by 4.7 per cent to $176.5 billion compared to $185.2 billion in 2008-09.

Source : The Economic Times