FinMin, commerce min differ over Africa

The union commerce and finance ministries have locked horns again over inclusion of Africa under the Focus Market scheme.

The differences are so sharp that Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention.

Citing additional revenue outgo of Rs 5 billion, the Finance Ministry is unwilling to include Africa under a scheme that was announced in the Foreign Trade Policy a month ago.

The Foreign Trade Policy was cleared by the Prime Minister himself before it was unveiled.

The commerce ministry had unveiled two new schemes - Focus Products and Focus Markets - to promote exports of select products and in select regions, replacing the controversial 'Target Plus' scheme.

At that time Focus Markets only covered Latin America but the commerce ministry felt countries in Africa should also be covered in the scheme as China was emerging as a big competitior in the region which had not been really explored by Indian exporters, official sources told PTI.

The commerce ministry's view is that Indian exports needed that little extra push to increase their market share in the continent. Infact under the market promotion initiatives run by the ministry itself, there are special focus initiatives for Latin America, Africa and CIS.