Despite increase in COVID-19 cases, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President S K Saraf is expecting exports to continue on the growth trajectory as the order booking position of exporters is very encouraging. He also said that exporters are better equipped to deal with the situation with lockdown and shut down this time.
FIEO President noted that in most of the states , manufacturing and exports related services have been exempted from the restrictions and inter-state movement of cargo is permitted by the central government. He said that however, a pandemic of such magnitude does cause disruptions since various stakeholders are not operating with full manpower including the industry. He expects the peak to come before mid-May and the situation should improve thereafter.
Further, Saraf said that majority of buyers are more understanding and accommodating as they have also gone through or going through similar challenges and they have extended the delivery period with mutual agreement. Seeking government intervention, Saraf said the government should open the filing facility for the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) for 2020-21 (upto December, 2020), and Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) facility.