India unveils foriegn trade policy for next 5yrs

New Delhi, Aug 27: Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Thursday, Aug 27, announced the new foreign trade policy for the next five years which aims at an export target for 2010-11.

He said that the duty refund scheme will continue till Dec 2010, while income tax holiday for export-oriented units will be there for one more year.

Sharma said capital goods will attract zero duty till Mar 2011 to encourage manufacturing.

Sharma said the immediate goal was to arrest decline in exports and to achieve 200 billion dollar export target by 2011.

He envisaged 15 percent growth for first two years and then 25 percent for the next three years.

He also said that with this India would be able to double its exports by 2014. He also set the target of doubling India's share in global trade by 2020.

For exporters duty exemption passbook scheme has been extended after Dec 2010. Tax holiday for export oriented units will continue for one more year.

India's exports fell at an annual rate of 27.7 per cent in June to 2.8 billion dollars, its ninth straight monthly fall, as economic downturn in key developed markets continued to hurt demand for local goods.

ANI