PM to chair Inter-State Trade Council meet next month

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will chair the meeting of the Inter-State Trade Council, which is expected to meet next month, to discuss ways to reduce transaction cost for exporters, besides simplification of procedures.     

"...Prime Minister has been kind to consent to my request to chair the first meeting (of Inter-State Trade Council)," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here today.     

Exporters are complaining that they have to deal with lot of paper work and complex procedures which delay exports.     

"...When we (meet) we (will) go in for simplification of procedures, which are difficult both for the industrialists and industries in different states," Sharma said.     

 

The council meeting is expected to be attended by state finance ministers and senior officials of central government.     

Meanwhile, in the new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) unveiled yesterday, the government has proposed some steps to reduce transaction costs for exporters like exemption from paying fees for availing incentives under various export development schemes and reducing other charges.     

The maximum fee charged on authorisations/licence applications on schemes like focus product, focus market, market access initiative and market development assistance, have been slashed.     

The government has also announced setting up of an inter- ministerial committee to look into the problems of exporters.     

After announcing the new policy yesterday, the minister addressed industry captains at separate functions organised by CII and FICCI today. 

Sharma also assured the industry that there was coordination between the ministries of Commerce and Finance and the customs and revenue notifications related with the new FTP would be issued next week. 

"We will see to it that next week all the notification are put in place, he said.

The short term objective of the trade policy is to arrest and reverse the declining trend of exports and provide additional support especially to those sectors which have been hit badly by recession in the developed countries.

"This policy is for two years, the government will step in if a situation present itself where there is a justified need for us to do something we will do," Sharma said. 

Taking a realistic view of the grim forecast of global trade that is likely to decline by 9 per cent in 2009, the policy aims at achieving an annual export growth rate of 15 per cent. 

India's exports are on downslide since October 2008 due to demand slowdown in the western economies. The country's exports grew by 3.4 per cent to about $168 billion in 2008- 09.