Govt likely to announce incentives for exporters in FTP

The government is expected to announce incentives like interest subsidy in the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) scheduled on June 05, 2012, for the labour intensive sectors such as textiles and carpets, in a move to help the hard-pressed sector in the wake of global slowdown. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has already evaluated the situation of exports with all stakeholders, together with the industry and export promotion councils.

Economic crisis in the US and Europe have affected India's exports, since both account for about one-third of country's total shipments. India's merchandise exports, which registered a growth of 82% in July 2011, witnessed a growth of mere 3.2% in April 2012, mainly on the back of slowing demand from these countries.

The government had extended export incentives worth Rs 1,700 crore in the last FTP announced in October 2011. Along with labour intensive sectors, incentives are also expected to be announced to make the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) more attractive.

The exporters on the other hand are also demanding easy and reasonably priced credit to SME exporters along with higher distribution of funds for market development and a regular policy for raw material security, besides 2% interest subsidy.