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Decision on sector specific sops for exporters soon: Sharma

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Press Trust of India New Delhi

The government today said it will soon decide on sops for the labour intensive export sectors, like engineering goods and textiles, hurt by the global slowdown, after completing an ongoing performance review.

"Sectoral reviews are on and they should be completed soon," Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of the 9th CII- NID Design Summit here.

He said a decision on incentives to exporters impacted by the falling demand would be taken after the review is completed but did not specify the timeline.

The commerce ministry is currently studying the impact of the packages, like interest subsidy and incentives to explore new markets, provided by the government to exporters.

On the prospects of India's exports, which are contracting since October 2008 due to the meltdown, Sharma expressed hope that shipments would turn positive in the last quarter of the current fiscal.

"Hopefully, we are moving in the positive territory by the final quarter (of this fiscal)," Sharma said. He said the contraction in India's exports has narrowed down but shipments in segments like apparels and handicrafts are yet to pick up.

After contracting by about 40 per cent in May, the downslide has reduced to 6.6 per cent in October.

Exports in October were valued to $13.19 billion from U$14.13 billion in the year-ago period.

 

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First Published: Dec 15 2009 | 2:45 PM IST

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