'EOUs must be treated on par with SEZs'

Exporters in the Saurashtra region have great expectations from the Exim Policy to be announced later this month. They hope the exporter friendly bias of the policy will continue.

"Many items from the Prohibited List should be made easily available to export. If cell phones, fruits, consumer products, etc are allowed to be freely imported/exported, why is ginger not in the list?" says Sunil Lakhani, president, Exim Club, Rajkot chapter.

"The main hindrance faced by exporters of this region is the lack of information. The community should be educated on the latest developments round the globe," he added. Lakhani said export oriented units (EOUs) should be given the same facilities as special economic zones (SEZs).

"The units should get the benefits of deemed exports and free currency. The government should also think of ways to boost the marketing aspect of the trade," he pointed out.

Lakhani called for the re-introduction of the Sale-Cum-Study Tour under the MDA scheme for small-time exporters. This was discontinued last year. "The exporters should get assistance for export marketing and training. This will motivate more exporters to come forward into the trade".

According to Milan Patel, a businessman engaged in foreign trade, the introduction of the advance license and the duty entitlement passbook (DEPB) schemes, has been a big booster for exporters. He added that the DEPB scheme needs to be simplified for it to be more effective.

Meanwhile, Virendra Sing, deputy director, DGFT, said that though the number of licenses for export-imports in Saurashtra has increased substantially, the actual volume of exports and imports has not risen significantly. He said 75 new exim licenses were issued in May and 62 in June, 2004. "80 to 90 more parties are included every month," Sing added.

"At present, there are more than seven thousand professionals with exim codes, but only 20 to 25 per cent of them actually operator in Saurashtra," Sing said.