Us Sanctions Not To Hit Exports, Says Hegde

Commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde has said that economic sanctions will not have any affect on exports. "The sanctions will not work against India's trade and even if it does, it will be temporary."

Hegde said that the recently announced concessional credit for incremental exports should to extended to all exports. He was speaking at the annual award giving function organised by the Engineering Exports Promotion Council in New Delhi yesterday.

Hegde asked: "How can there be incremental exports without exports?" He promised to take up the issue of granting concessional credit at 6.5 per cent for all exports with finance minister Yashwant Sinha and the Reserve Bank of India.

 

"Exporters should not be afraid of sanctions. The finance minister will soon give a proper reply to it," he said while exhorting them to strive for greater competitiveness in the global market in terms of price, delivery schedule, quality and technology upgradation.

He also promised to shortly come up with a "grand plan" for accelerating the growth of exports. The plan will involve, among other things, merge all the export promotion schemes into one and computerise export procedures to check human interference and inspector raj.

The minister said he was considering lowering the threshold limit for duty-free imports under the Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme from Rs 20 crore to Rs 1 crore for the engineering sector as has been done for certain other sectors in the export-import policy.

Saying that a separate ministry should be created for infrastructure, the minister said he will take up the matter with the prime minister. Inadequate infrastructure, high-cost credit and red-tape were the bottlenecks in the growth of exports. Hegde said he was confident that the country will achieve 20 per cent export growth in the current year despite the sanctions.

The minister commended exporters of engineering goods who had increased exports from Rs 5 crore in 1955 to Rs 15,600 crore in 1977-98. EEPC chairperson P K Shah said exporters need categorical assurance from the government that non-Modvatable import duty of 4 per cent would not be levied on license issued under the duty exemption scheme, EPCG scheme or onSIls special import license.

He expressed confidence that engineering exports will go up 20-25 per cent provided the government took the necessary steps including readjusting DEPB rates taking into account the impact of new levies.

At the function, which was also attended by commerce secretary P P Prabhu, the minister gave away all-India top exporters' shield 1996-97 to Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company, Shree Uma Foundaries, Metro Exporters, Tata Iron & Steel Company, Nuki Investments, Tata Projects and Chemtex Engineering India. He also presented all-India special shield and export excellence certificates for 1996-97 to several other exporters.

" Real money comes from exports. Investment by non-resident Indians and foreign institutional investors is not real money as it is not earned by us. The importance of exports in promoting prosperity must be clearly realised," he said.