The Hindu Business Line : Strengthening rupee weakens marine export sector

While a strong rupee has hit Indian marine exports hard, the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) has said some of the measures announced by the Government to mitigate the crisis remains ineffective.

“What is the point in extending duty free entitlement with an actual user condition for a sector whose duty-paid imports is almost zero?” the association asked in a statement issued here.

Due to fierce international competition and strengthening of the rupee, it has requested that such entitlements be made transferable.

Unkept commitment

In a pre-Budget request to the Government, SEAI said though the Foreign Trade Policy 2007 had clearly committed that “the service tax on services rendered in India and utilised by exporters would be exempted/remitted”, the commitment has not been kept up by the concerned Ministry and was creating problems for exporters. This can affect the marine exports hard, it pointed out.

Other issues

In aquaculture, there is a growing need to encourage production of species with lower costs of production and higher productivity, for examplepromoting culture of vanammae shrimp over black tiger or monsoon shrimp. While India has kept out vanammae shrimp on perceived risks of exotic species, it has been successfully cultured in Thailand, Vietnam, China and Ecuador, the association said.

overlap in functions

SEAI also pointed out that there is considerable overlap in the functions and responsibilities of various government departments, as far as seafood production and exports are concerned.

This is creating considerable frustration for the entrepreneurs and many growth opportunities are being lost or missed out.

Clarity and accountability are critical for the growth of fisheries sector, particularly on sourcing or production side like aquaculture and fishing, it stated.

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