Govt mulling more measures for exporters

The government is mulling few more measures for helping exporters, reeling under the steep slowdown of demand in the major markets of the US and Europe, Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar said today.

"We are thinking of few other steps, which would formalise and will be announced soon," Kumar said on the sidelines of Petrotech-2009 here.

The government has already announced stimulus packages in December 2008 and January. It had provided an interest subsidy of two per cent up to March this fiscal subject to minimum rate of interest of 7%.

Expressing disappointment over the second stimulus package, exporters has warned of "huge" job losses and missing the export target of $200 billion for the current fiscal, unless the government provides them further sops.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisations has asked the government to increase drawback rates for tax refunds and additional 2% interest subsidy.

Asked if there is any possibility to achieve the export target for this fiscal, he said," there could be some shortfall in certain sectors like gems and jewellery."

"Some sectors like consumer durables and white-collar goods could be hit because of production cost," he added.

The country's exports, which posted a robust 30.9% growth in the first-half of this fiscal, contracted by 12.1% in October, for the first time in five years. The negative trend continued in November, when exports fell to $11.5 billion, from $12.7 billion.

In 2007-08, India's exports had totalled to $165 billion, against the target of $160 billion.