Difficult to increase export incentives: DGFT

Kolkata, Sept 15: India cannot be complacent of its forex reserves and exports have to be increased to meet the country's import bills for essential commodities, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) K T Chacko said today.

Addressing the members of Merchant Chamber of Commerce (MCC) here, Chacko said the exporters should aim at creating newer markets for Indian products to increase exports from the countries.

He, however, cautioned that the increasing incentives on exports would become a difficult proposition with WTO provisions against export subsidies and the increasing burden on budgetary support.

"India pays around Rs 40,000-50,000 crore of export incentives every year and it would be difficult to neutralise the duties and taxes because of the WTO provisions," he said.

He said the "Target Plus" scheme for exporters cannot be increased beyond the five per cent rate since already Rs 6,000 crore is doled out through the scheme and WTO provisions prohibit export subsidies.

UNI