Govt mulls providing forex loan at cheaper rates to exporters: Goyal

The government is considering a proposal to provide foreign exchange loan at cheaper interest rate to exporters, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal informed Parliament on Wednesday.

"The proposal is presently under consideration," he said in a reply to a question whether the government proposes to provide foreign exchange loan at cheaper rate of interest to the exporters.

He said the government is considering a proposal to provide higher insurance coverage to the banks on their export-credit-disbursement. It is expected that it will enable banks to revise their lending rate for export credit and to provide foreign exchange loan at cheaper rate of interest, the minister added.

Replying to a separate question, he said the current trade standoff between the US and China and the slowdown in international market is likely to have its impact on the imports and exports of countries, including India, and may bring about a shift in the bilateral trading patterns.

"The retaliatory tariffs between US and China have provided a limited window of opportunity for enhancing India's exports to China and US, particularly in products in which India is also competitive," Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

He said that India's exports to both the US and China have increased in 2018-19 as compared to 2017-18.

"While the exact degree to which this increase can be attributed to the impact of US-China trade standoff is not clearly discernible at this point, the increase can be partly attributed to the fact that certain Indian products have gained in the US market due to higher duties on competing Chinese products and vice-versa for the Chinese market," he said.

Goyal said the government has sensitised all the trade promotion bodies to work towards enhancing exports by capitalizing on this opportunity arising from the ongoing tariff standoff between the US and China.

"The extent to which India can capitalize on the opportunity depends upon a number of factors including, the cost competitiveness of its products as compared to similar product of other competing countries in the Chinese and US market, and any other factors like generation of adequate exportable surpluses, market access etc," he added.