Concerned about the drop in exports of labour-intensive items such as gems & jewellery, engineering, leather products, man-made textiles and handloom, senior officials from the Commerce and Industry Ministry will meet exporters on Tuesday to discuss the situation and find a way out.

“Exports have not been increasing consistently this year as was expected. The matter is of greater concern as exports are falling in sectors that engage a large number of workers, including gems & jewellery, textiles and engineering goods. The government wants to find out how it can work with exporters to address the situation,” a government official told BusinessLine . Export growth in December 2018 was almost flat at $27.93 billion due to a fall in shipments of labour-intensive goods. In the April-December 2018 period, there was a 10.18 per cent growth in exports at $245.44 billion.

While the export growth in the initial months of the current fiscal was encouraging, in the third quarter it slackened.

“The idea behind the meeting is to find out from exporters if there were some particular problems that they were facing that could be addressed through government intervention. The government also wants to know if the incentives given to exporters are working,” the official added. All export promotion councils as well as representatives from export organisations will participate in the meeting.

No Budget measures

The Interim-Budget announced by stand-in Finance Minister Piyush Goyal did not have any incentives for the export sector. “There was not much expectations of any major announcements for exporters in the Budget as incentives have been extended to exporters in the past through notifications. If the government deems fit, it could do so now as well,” the official said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW