Govt to take measures to support export sector: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi, Feb 29: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday, Feb 29 said that more support will be provided to exporters to give a boost to overseas shipments.

"The duty drawback scheme has been widened and deepened to include more products and countries. The government will continue to take measures to support the export sector," Jaitley said in his Budget speech for 2016-17.

Under the scheme, the government refunds duties on imported inputs for export items. Exports dipped for the 14th month in a row, down 13.6 per cent in January to USD 21 billion due to fall in shipments of petroleum and engineering goods, although trade deficit showed improvement.

Imports shrank 11 per cent to USD 28.71 billion last month, resulting in a trade deficit of USD 7.63 billion, lowest in eleven months.

In February last year, the deficit was USD 6.85 billion. For the first 10 months of the current fiscal, cumulative exports declined by 17.65 per cent to USD 217.67 billion, as against USD 264.32 billion in April-January period of 2014-15.

PTI