The Commerce and Industry Ministry is mulling incentives for States that play a proactive role in promoting exports as it will help boost economic growth. It added that a strategy was being prepared to increase the share of international trade in India’s GDP.
Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said he has sought the views of States on the issue, which was discussed during the third meeting of Council for Trade Development and Promotion. He further said “We are thinking of ideas whereby we can incentivise the States which promote exports. I have mooted this idea before the States and asked them to give their ideas on this”.
He said if the GDP of States rises, it will push the country’s growth, adding that the focus should also be on districts’ GDP, which in turn would fuel the nation’s economy. He said that we will have to work with NITI Aayog for this and added that we had also asked States to appoint at least one nodal officer in charge of exports. They said for this, they would need experts, not bureaucrats. So, we are looking into that.
Prabhu added that we are in the process of preparing a strategy for at least 40% of India’s GDP which will happen in next 7-8 years to come from global trade, and at least half of that should be from exports. The country's merchandise exports during April-November 2017-18 increased by 12.01 per cent to $ 196.48 billion.