New trade policy gives succore to exporters

New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) Faced with the spectre of falling exports in the wake of high appreciation of the rupee, the new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) unveiled by the government today gives a slew of sops to the exporting community, including exempting exports from service tax and a renewed thrust to agri-exports.

The annual supplement to the policy extends the time period of the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme by another year.

It has a new scheme for propelling exports of high tech products and enlarges the ambit of exports under the Videsh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana by bringing under its fold new agri-products.

The policy announced by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has steps to ease export obligations under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme. The export obligation period under the EPCG scheme has been increased from eight to 12 years.

The policy sets an export target of 160 billion dollars for 2007-08 and envisages that these would go up to 200 billions dollars by 2008-09. The target has been fixed on the assumption that the rupee will remain at the level where it stands now, barring a minor depriciation.

The Chambers and the exporting community lauded the policy, describing it as 'dynamic' having been presented by a 'dynamic' Commerce Minister. The initiative, they said, would leapfrog exports and generate large scale employment.

Mr Nath unequivocally pushed thorugh his agenda of setting of more Special Economic Zones (SEZs), as it was a way of putting exports on high track. The investments in the SEZs would go up from Rs 20,000 crore this year to Rs 40,000 crore next year with the implementation of the remaining 92 SEZs already cleared. At present, 50 such projects are under implementation.

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