Exporters demand credit at affordable rates in budget
NEW DELHI: Exporters on Thursday demanded fiscal incentives, tweaking in customs duties on certain products and credit at affordable rates in the forthcoming Budget to boost exports and create jobs.
In a pre-budget virtual meeting with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations ( FIEO) said the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar is affecting exports’ competitiveness and the sector requires more support.
“Creation of employment is the biggest challenge faced by the country...We would urge the government to provide fiscal support to units which provide additional employment in the export sector,” the exporter’s body said.
It said that incentives may be provided based on twin criteria of growth in exports and the creation of additional jobs.
The body stated that at a time when global demand for goods is declining, it has become fundamental to go for “aggressive” marketing.
It argued that the ₹200 crore support given under Market Development Assistance (MDA) scheme for promoting exports to $ 460- 470 billion is just a “drop in the ocean”.
“Therefore, for aggressive marketing, there is a need for the creation of an Export Development Fund with a corpus of minimum 0.5% of preceding year’s exports,” it suggested adding a special scheme for goods exported by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can be introduced in the budget.
On the direct tax front, it has demanded an increase in the deduction for investment. On R&D, and procedural simplification by the abolition of TCS (Tax Collected at Source) has been sought.
It also asked for a 200% tax deduction on the expenditure made by exporters for overseas marketing; and extension of tax incentives for the private sector to set up a global Indian shipping line to tap the market.