'Removal of farm cess to boost export'

Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh today said removal of cess on agricultural and marine products would help boost their exports by making them more competitive in the international markets.

"The cess was essentially a tax on exports. With the incidence of cess being around 0.5 per cent, the withdrawal will make our products more competitive by that margin in the global market. The Cess (Repeal) Bill, was approved by Parliament yesterday," he said.

The minister pointed out that the agricultural and marine products together accounted for 10 per cent of the country's exports at around $10 billion in 2005-06.

Ramesh said the withdrawal of the cess would not have any revenue implications as the cess on agriculture and marine products together amounted to only Rs 110 crore annually.

On 352 sensitive items, he said their share as a proportion of the total imports had declined to 2.7 per cent during April-Feb '05-06 compared with 3.9 per cent during the same period last year.