The Hindu Business Line : A shot in the arm for exports: India Inc

Simultaneously, the industry chambers have expressed hope that they would find adequate representation in the constitution of the "Board of Trade" suggested by the Government.

While the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) felt that the policy "presents a vision of India as a `global hub' for manufacturing, trading and services", the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) has pointed out that it "takes cognisance of India's export competitiveness in the light of bilateral and multilateral trade processes that India has entered into or is in the process of entering."

Mr Y.K. Modi, President, FICCI, welcomed the move towards a comprehensive drawback policy which is going to be WTO compatible and suggested that the scheme should be such that all incidences of indirect taxes, including State and local levies should be neutralised so that Indian exports can become more competitive.

Meanwhile, the CII President, Mr S.K. Munjal, pointed out that project exports have excellent prospects, but did not get any incentives. "The CII would also have liked to see some policy statements on software export zones and free trade agreements (FTAs)," he added. The CII looks forward to interacting with the Board of Trade, which has been proposed to play a greater role in developing foreign trade related initiatives, added a CII statement.

The Assocham President, Mr M.K. Sanghi, said: "The critical aspects for achieving the targets are timely and adequate availability of credit, improvement in the infrastructure and participation of States."

According to PHDCCI, the focus should also have been given to diversify our export markets and the tapping of new markets, as the aggressive strategy to enter into FTA framework agreements does not look at countries in Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

FICCI welcomed the Government's broad philosophy stating that "in order to impart competitiveness to Indian exports it is necessary that taxes should not be exported."

The chambers welcomed the decision to set up free trade warehouse zones in which the service exports will be encouraged.

"The duty-free import of capital goods for agriculture exporter and permitting 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the free trade zones are welcome measures to boost India's agricultural exports," said Assocham.

The industry has welcomed the proposed Services Export Promotion Council and the `Serve from India' scheme for the services sector. These moves will help the non-IT services like entertainment, medical tourism, accounting services, financial services etc to realise greater potential, they said.

On the initiatives for the services sector, the CII said that since market access in services has been a key concern for Indian service providers. The policy has proposed a "served from India" scheme and a services export promotion council to develop the Indian brand.

Mr Ravi Wig, President, PHDCCI, said that the emphasis on evolving a partnership approach between the industry and the Government for doubling India's merchandise exports in the next five years is indeed a positive step.

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