Govt taking measures against Rupee appreciation impact: Kamal Nath

Bangalore, Feb 8 (UNI) Union Government has initiated certain measures to protect Indian exporters competitiveness with other countries following Rupee Appreciation against Dollar and other European currencies, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath said today.

Addressing an Exporters Meet, organised jointly by Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) and Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), the Union Minister circulated a note on the measures taken by the Union government to offset the loss suffered by the Indian exporters on account of Rupee Appreciation.

Among the many steps taken, the Centre was examining feasibility of introducing zero duty EPCG scheme replacing the present 5 per cent concessional duty EPCG scheme. This may be justified on account of continuous reduction in customs duty on import of capital goods, it was stated in the note.

Besides examining the scheme where an exporter exporting more than 75 per cent of the total production would be eligible under EPCG scheme without any stipulation of average and also to increase incentives under Focus Product and Focus Market scheme from the present level of 1.25 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively. This will help exporters in tackling the adverse impact of rupee appreciation to a certain extent.

The union government also examining to take steps to ensure that all the taxes incurred on export production are reimbursed to the exporters including abatement of service tax on all services related to export production and delivery of exports, state levies such as Octrai, Manditax, electricity duty.

Besides, the union government also examining to reduce the transaction cost for exporters and in its endevour towards this it is being considered to notify all ports by the customs for general import and export with valuation facilities, as port under Export Promotion Schemes. At present only 108 out of 346 such ports are notified for export promotion Schemes.

However, Mr R S Gujral, Director General for Foreign Trade in his address, ruled out the possibilities of reimbursement of the losses suffered by the Exporters due to Rupee appreciation against foreign currencies.

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