Interacting with the members of various export councils here on Friday, he asked the companies to seal the trading contract in rupee denominations to shield themselves from the rising rupee. He declined the industry's suggestion that the government announce new duty entitlement passbook scheme to shield exporters from the falling dollar.
Exporters demanded that the export obligations equivalent to 8 times of duty saved be reduced to 5 times in view of the rupee appreciating continuously and also sought a relaxation in export achievement during the year.
The Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council, Hyderabad wing, too urged the DGFT to include potential markets like Ukraine, Russia, Brazil, Nigeria in the focus market scheme as they had a lot of potential. Responding to this, Gujaral said 10 countries were recently added to the focus market scheme list.
The council also sought amendments to remove the ban on industrial grade sugars. Currently, there is a ban on export of sugar and this was causing problems for the manufacturers of industrial pharma grade sugar.
Gujaral also informed that the matter relating to import of pharma grade gelatin granules had been referred to the environment and animal husbandry ministries. The customs department does not allow import citing that gelatin granules are of porcine origin (pig skin, which comes under livestock). However, the companies said the product was a processed one and does not contain any micro-organisms.
