Exporters from select labour intensive sectors will be able to access cheaper credit soon as the Government gets ready to reintroduce an interest subvention scheme in the next two-three months.

“The Finance Ministry has given us the sanction to extend the interest subvention scheme for exports for three years. We are working out the details of the scheme and hope to be ready with it in two-three months,” Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said at a seminar on the Foreign Trade Policy organised by FICCI on Thursday.

This should come as a relief for exporters who had been pushing for extension of the subvention scheme since April last year, when the previous scheme had lapsed.

Under the interest subvention scheme, the beneficiary exporters are provided credit at a subsidised rate by banks, which are later compensated by the Government.

The subvention scheme for the current fiscal year, however, may not be more expansive than the previous one as the provision of ₹1,625 crore is only marginally higher than the ₹1,475 crore spent two years back.

“The only thing I can say is that labour intensive sectors will be given prominence,” Kher said.

The benefit of a 3 per cent subsidy under the lapsed interest subvention scheme was available to sectors such as handicrafts, handlooms, carpets, readymade garments, processed agricultural products and the small and medium sector.

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