The Hindu Business Line : What They Say

FICCI President, has welcomed the measures to cut down the transaction costs and time for exporters and importers through new Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) initiatives and allowing pre-shipment certificates in lieu of test report for faster clearance. The decision to provide flexibility with regard to average export performance under the Export Promotion Capital Good Scheme is a positive development.

Mr Sanjay Budhia, Chairman of the trade policy committee of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII): "The decision to offer the facility to import the required inputs before exports and the ability to transfer of scrip once the export obligation is over provides the right flexibility to exporters."

Mr Anil K Agarwal, Assocham President, was of the view that the policy would spur-up exports, promote manufacturing base, help create new job opportunities for both skilled and unskilled force of the country and will decelerate the gap between imports and exports.

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI): "The Government's decision to pay interest on delayed payments of refunds and factor in the incidence of un-rebated service tax and FBT in the various duty neutralisation and remission schemes would improve the cost competitiveness of Indian exporters."

Mr B. Prabhakar, President of Indo-American Chamber of Commerce: "The Focus Product scheme unveiled by the Minister will help not only in creating strong production bases and export outlets in rural and semi-urban areas, but also catalyse the quality of life by creating millions of gainful employment."

Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in particular welcomed the steps undertaken by the Government such as Vishes Krishi and Gram Udyog Yogana to create export outlets in rural and semi-urban areas.

Mr O.P. Garg, President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations: "The policy does not provide any new measures to the status holders. It has only partially addressed our concerns on transaction costs. We were expecting measures that would fully rebate the State level levies suffered by exporters."

He, however, expressed satisfaction over announcement of flexibility in maintaining the average export performance under the EPCG scheme. New measures such as focus product, focus market, and the announcement regarding factoring the incidence of un-rebated service tax and fringe benefit tax in the various duty utilisation and remission schemes, among others, were also welcomed.

The Council for Leather Exports (CLE) Chairman, Mr Rafeeque Ahmed: "The policy amendments and schemes support the leather industry and will facilitate the industry achieve its target and growth. The new schemes, focus product and focus market, to provide duty credit facility to units in particular industries cover leather products and units exporting to focus countries. They will offset infrastructure bottlenecks, high freight rates and enhance the competitiveness of Indian products in the international markets.

"The new Duty Free Import Authorisation Scheme will provide input taxation relief.

"The flexibility to maintain average export performance will remove the hurdles in availing of the EPCG (Export Promotion Capital Goods) scheme. But the industry's plea to allow zero duty facility for import of machinery under the EPCG scheme has not been considered."