The provisional estimates released on June 1 had pegged exports during April 2003 at $434.26 million, which meant a growth of 8.71 per cent over April 2002.
However, the decrease is not on account of the dollar depreciating against the rupee from around 48.92 in April 2002 to 47.37 in April 2003.
In rupee terms, the decline is steeper, with exports falling 6.16 per cent to Rs 18,337.91 crore during April this year from Rs 19,541.22 crore in the corresponding period last year.
Also, the poor show is not limited to April.
According to the provisional sectoral data for the first quarter of 2003-04, exports of key products like gems and jewellery fell 14 per cent to $1.73 billion during April-June 2003 from 2.01 billion in the corresponding period last year, while textile exports, comprising readymade garments and cotton and manmade yarn and fabrics, dropped nearly 5 per cent to $2.16 billion.
Similarly, the export of engineering goods dropped 1.9 per cent to $1.52 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal, while that of basic chemicals climbed 6.5 per cent to 1.13 billion.
The government had claimed an export growth of 11.06 per cent during the first quarter of 2003-04.
However, flash figures for 25 products in April-June 2003-04 revealed that exports of 15 items had declined, while jute and petroleum product exports had surged over 40 per cent.
Commerce ministry officials are perplexed by the huge gap in the provisional estimates, released on the first day of each month, and the revised data, which analyses commodity-wise exports and imports at the two-digit level.
