Opaque policies breed lobbying, corruption

The policy of throwing money in the name of export promotion through an opaque process encourages lobbying and corruption

In a surprising move, the government has doubled the rewards for dairy products under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). The rates for items such as cheese, skimmed milk, milk food, whole milk, condensed milk, yogurt, etc, go up from 10 per cent to 20 per cent. 

It is a moot point whether export should be promoted through such heavy subsidy. The stated objective of the schemes in Chapter 3 of the Foreign Trade Policy is to reward exporters, to help offset infrastructural inefficiency and associated costs. One such is MEIS and the other is the Services Exports from India