India’s commerce ministry is aiming at $419 billion worth exports this fiscal and a detailed analysis has been carried out for that, with the target disaggregated according to country, commodity, region and states across 31 commodity groups. Merchandise exports are expected to touch $1 trillion by 2027-28 for which a road map has been chalked out, a top government official said recently.
Indian exports have been roughly fluctuating between $290 billion and $330 billion for the last 10 years, commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said.
For the market intelligence network, a set up like the goods and services tax network (GSTN) will be developed where exporters would get real time information, he said. .Another area being looked at by the ministry is denotification of idle spaces, he told the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Annual Meeting 2021.
To realise the lofty export targets, the government plans to create a market intelligence network by using the service of its 140 embassies and 60 consulates globally.
The services exports’ sector is like ‘an orphan in many ways’ as it is distributed among 30 different departments of the government, he said. “We are going to start an exercise. We export about $200 billion services every year. The target is actually to hit about $700 billion by 2027-28,” he said.
Listing out steps which the ministry is going to take to achieve these targets, he said as Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), and Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS), are stopped now, the government will notify Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) rates probably by August 13.
Similarly, the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) scheme for textiles will be notified soon and this would boost exports, he was quoted as saying by a news agency.
“We are coming up with a scheme called district as an export hub. If you take 700 districts in the country, the scheme will actually work in a challenge mode. We will ask districts to compete with each other and about 100-150 districts will be funded well to develop quality export infrastructure.” he said.
The secretary said a substantial amount of money would be put in these districts, which would be anywhere between Rs.50-100 crore for a district.
By the end of August, the government will do ‘a couple of things’ for special economic zones as well, he added.
