Brand Equity Fund Comes To Rescue Of Commerce Dept

The India Brand Equity Fund (IBEF) has come to the rescue of the commerce department. The interest on the Rs 100 crore IBEF corpus is going to be used for the market access initiative (MAI) of the commerce department. The government proposes to provide up to 70 per cent promotional support for branded exports.

The MAI has an initial corpus of around Rs 11 crore to be used during the current fiscal, thanks largely to the Rs 10 crore interest on IBEF. According to officials the corpus is expected to increase to about Rs 200 crore from the next fiscal.

 

According to the guidelines prepared by the commerce department, the promotion cost of identified branded products will be sent to the IBEF Trust for reimbursement through soft loans.

This would be repaid between five and seven years with nominal royalty on the incremental sales of brands in the thrust areas.

Sources said that the showrooms the government proposed to set up abroad would showcase select consumer items at identified centres and the participants would bear full maintenance charges and a part of the rentals.

The MAI fund will bear 75 per cent of the rental in the first year which will be pruned to 50 per cent and 25 per cent in the second and the third year, respectively. The government intends to start with 20 showrooms initially.

Tie-ups with international stores to display products with