Centre plans steps to revive exports after slump in Oct

The commerce ministry has devised a multipronged plan that includes offering incentives and exploring new markets to revive outbound shipments amid a demand slump in major markets resulting in Indian October exports contracting for the first time in 19 months.

Among measures proposed by the ministry are tapping new markets in Africa and Latin America and offering exporters additional credit guarantees and tariff protection measures to boost exports and expand local manufacturing, a person aware of the development said, requesting anonymity.

The ministry has also proposed hiking basic customs duty on products where the department of revenue has rejected anti-dumping recommendations by the director general of trade remedies in the last two years. However, experts argued that such a step might be counterproductive, as antidumping duty is only imposed on a particular country, whereas customs duty will affect all countries, hurting the domestic industry.

“The ministry is also exploring free-trade agreement opportunities beyond the traditional markets such as with Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Economic Community of West African States and Latin American countries such as Mercosur, Chile, Colombia and Peru. These are the regions where we are expecting growth in exports. Removal of export duty on steel has already been announced and, now, a plan is being worked out to incentivize engineering clusters. The remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RODTEP) is also being considered to be extended to the steel, pharmaceuticals and chemicals sectors,” the person said.

The government will also help exporters of engineering products build brands, with a focus on the US, European Union, China and the United Arab Emirates, the person said.

Outbound shipments for iron ore slumped by 90% in value terms in October, led by a steep decline in international prices.

Moreover, exports from key sectors, including engineering, readymade garments, gems and jewellery, and plastics and linoleum, declined by more than 20% in October.

Further, exports of cotton yarn and jute products reported a more than 40% decline as demand slowed across India’s major markets amid rising interest rates, the recessionary outlook in Western markets and intermittent lockdowns across China.

Queries sent to the spokesperson for the commerce and industry ministry remained unanswered till press time.

The revamped special economic zones (SEZS) to be called development hubs will likely be tabled in the winter session of the parliament next month.

According to the draft bill, the development hubs will be allowed to sell outside the demarcated area or in the domestic market, with duties only to be paid on the imported inputs and raw materials instead of the final products.

In the case of SEZS, duties had to be paid on the final product while selling in the domestic tariff area, making it uncompetitive.