Exporters seek duty concessions

Exporters yesterday asked the government to continue incentives such as income-tax benefits under Section 80 HHC and the Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme in order to sustain last year's export growth of over 17 per cent.

Interacting with Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee on Tuesday to finalise the export target and strategies for 2004-05, almost all the export bodies indicated that their thrust would be on marketing efforts, buyer-seller meets, sponsoring delegations, holding seminars and workshops and participating in international fairs and exhibitions.

Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee said there was a renewed confidence in the country's manufacturing sector. He underlined the need to focus on sectors like textiles, handicrafts and gems and jewellery, which generate employment.

Official sources told Business Standard the export target for 2004-05 could be pegged at 12 to 15 per cent since most of the associations had indicated growth rates of 15-20 per cent.

The government had last year pegged the target at 12 per cent. While sectors such as chemicals and engineering, electronics and computer software are expecting growth rates of over 15 per cent, sectors such as tea, coffee and the marine sector have lowered their projections.

It was also observed during the meeting that there was a discrepancy in the data collected by the various councils and the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS).

In some cases, the DGCIS was found to have overestimated the data. Chatterjee asked the councils concerned to meet separately with the economic adviser and DGCIS and Directorate General of Foreign Trade officials to correct the discrepancies.