The Centre will consult states next month and find ways to help distressed exporters battling the demand recession.
"Next month we are going to convene the meeting of the Inter State Trade Council...To have a closer interaction between Centre and States," Commerce and industry Minister Anand Sharma said after chairing a high-level meeting of the Board of Trade (BoT) here today.
This would be first time that the Inter State Trade Council would have its meeting although the institutional mechanism was in place for long.
While exports are on a downslide since October 2008, the dip is about 30 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal.
Sharma indicated that fiscal incentives could be announced in the foreign trade policy to be unveiled later this month. Sharma said he wanted to focus on reducing the transaction costs for exporters.
The BoT had arrived at a consensus that an umbrella organisation should be set up to address the problems of exporters who need not run to different government departments and export promotion of councils for redressal of their grievances.
