Punjab exporters do not warm up to Centre's sops

Small- and medium-scale exporters of Punjab seem unsatisfied by the recent compensation provided by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry for the losses they faced due to appreciation of the rupee.

Speaking to Business Standard, P D Sharma, president (Punjab), Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry, expressed regret at the lack of attention paid to small industries as compared to their bigger counterparts. "Even raw materials available to small scale units were costlier as compared to the larger units," he said.

A spokesperson of Lalru-based Agro-Dutch Industries Pvt Ltd, a 100 per cent export-oriented unit and the largest exporter of mushroom in India, said the duty drawback rates were not applicable to their industry.

For the past few months, apart from appreciation of rupee, high labour costs have already affected our cost of production. There has been almost 16 per cent fall in our total turnover due to the increasing rupee," he said.

Himachal Pradesh based another agro processor Manmohan Malik said that though our company was able to pass down some part of rupee appreciation to our customers in international market, but they need to get more incentives like Vishesh Krishi Upaj Yojna.

Whereas cheaper bank credit, increased rate of tax refunds and the faster reimbursement of claims has been appreciated by Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings.

Inderjit Singh Pardhan, president (Punjab), CICU said that the relief package of Rs 1400 crore announced for exporters indicated the protective gesture of the central government towards exporters and industry as a whole. ``Duty drawback increase should be up to five percent to minimize losses to exporters.''