Worried over the decline in growth of exports in rupee terms, commerce minister Kamal Nath has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention for speedy notification of service tax waiver for exporters. "I have written to Prime Minister on this issue and it is expected that notification for this is likely to be issued shortly," Nath told PTI. However, he said delays could be because of an elaborate exercise that the finance ministry needs for working out modalities of the service tax refund. Nath had announced the measure in the annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy in April, and was to be implemented within a month. The move was aimed at benefitting exporters as the rupee has risen by 6-14% against major currencies such as the US dollar, pound and euro, since August last year. During April-May 2007-08, exports grew 18% in dollar terms, but merely 6% in rupee terms. According to a study ordered by Nath, competitiveness of chemicals has eroded by 12%, textiles by 6% and food products by 25%. |