Amid rising concern over the declining shipments, exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) has demanded the government to announce steps to contain the fall in exports and boost out-bound shipments. FIEO further said that it has become even more serious that the fall in exports during the last quarter of FY16 was on a low base.
It said that investment-linked benefit should be announced for MSME exporters, line of credit or buyers' credit to boost exports and setting up an Export Development Fund. Also, it has called for steps like declaring exports as a priority sector for the lending purpose and restoration of interest subsidy to all exporters.
FIEO stated that the continuous slowdown in demand in global markets and liquidity problem are primarily responsible for the drop in out-bound shipments in 2015-16 and that uncertainty on the policy front, ease of doing business and high cost of credit did play a smaller role in the decline.
India’s merchandise exports extending decline for the sixteen months in row, contracted by 5.47 percent to $22718.69 million in the month of March. For the whole of 2015-16, exports declined by 15.8 per cent to a 5-year low of $261.13 billion due to fragile global demand and low commodity prices.