Since she took over as Union minister of commerce two years earlier, Nirmala Sitaraman has presided over an unprecedented 17 months of decline in exports' growth. The tweaks in Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) or the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) scheme haven't revived exports or investments in the latter. There is no movement on bilateral or multilateral trade agreements.
Of course, the ministry would mention a host of steps to revive exports, including the changes made in FTP and SEZs. Such changes are made by every government, on feedback from exporters and investors. The point is that she has not come up with impactful packages for exporters, the way predecessors Kamal Nath and Anand Sharma did when the going got tough in international markets.
Soon after she took over, the minister talked of a very different FTP, a comprehensive review of all trade agreements and reorientation of the SEZ scheme. Useful changes were made in FTP and SEZs but, quite clearly, she or her officers had not anticipated the impact of prolonged slowing in global trade and economic growth. Or the eroding price competitiveness of our exports.
They had also not fully assessed the impact of withdrawal of the Duty Entitlement Passbook scheme and rewards based on incremental exports growth like the Status Holder Incentives Scheme or Incremental Exports Incentivisation Scheme.
On ease of doing business, most of the steps relate to using electronic communication, electronic filing of documents and electronic transmission of documents to various agencies under the single window approval scheme. These are ongoing efforts as technology evolves and enables more activities to be performed online; every government has been doing its bit in that direction. Such facilitations are expected as a matter of course.
The test of good governance is whether exporters perceive a significant difference while receiving government services at the operating levels. On that count, the good days are still far ahead. Sitaraman has made no perceivable effort to either improve efficiency or crack down on corruption at the operating levels.
Shyamal Ghosh, former Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), used to go around the country, meeting exporters and holding 'licence adalats' to seek out their problems, resolve most of these on the spot or afterwards through general dispensations. Later, N L Lakhanpal also travelled far and wide to understand the problems of exporters and resolve these. In sharp contrast, the senior officers of Sitaraman's ministry are glued to headquarters and not too aware of what exporters go through, unless a problem is brought to them.
Saying this is not to deny that many useful dispensations have been made under the present administration but to emphasise that more needs to be done.
On trade negotiations, Sitaraman seems to take cues from the finance minister or prime minister and promptly make appropriate noises. It is difficult to recall any positive moves on her part. Even her faint moves to restructure the offices of the DGFT seem to be inspired by a nudge from the finance minister.
Overall, Sitharaman seems better suited to her favourite role as a party spokesperson than as a minister.
tncrajagopalan@gmail.com
