Another package for exporters likely next month, says minister

The Union government is likely to announce yet another incentive package for labour-intensive export sectors by early December, after a full review of the measures announced earlier. 

“We kept something up our sleeves … from the budgetary support that was given to us, we have kept something back so that we can release it after a mid-term analysis, which will be completed by the middle of December,” said Jyotiraditya Scindia, minister of state for commerce and industry, on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit here. 

He said sectors such as engineering goods need further help, even as “some rays of hope” could be seen in apparel, handicrafts, gems and jewellery. “We will be providing more robust support once the analysis is done.” 

Scindia also said the continuous decline in exports has also slowed in the past couple of months and he expects the numbers to move into positive territory by the fourth quarter of the current financial year. 

On whether the government should resort to exiting the process of rolling out measures, he said, “We need to wait until numbers come out and post Q4 FY 09-10 is when the Prime Minister will take a decision.” 

Under the Foreign Trade Policy of 2009-2014, the government had announced a series of measures for the downturn-hit exporting community. Some significant sops were extension of tax holidays, duty refund schemes and duty-free import of capital goods. 

FTP had also set a target of $200-billion exports for 2010-2011, while setting a long-term plan of doubling India's share in global trade by 2020. Besides FTP, the government had also provided a slew of sops as part of the two stimulus packages announced on December 2008 and this January.