India's $300 bn in merchandise exports till Dec 2021 phenomenal: FIEO

Export has broken all previous records of recent times, showcasing the continuous resilience of India's exports sector. The enthusiasm with which the Exim community has impressively performed during the year has further given a boost to the sector, thereby helping the economy further move towards recovery. The forecast of growth in the economy along with the recent GDP numbers also showcases the positive impact of exports, FIEO chief said in a statement.

Praising the efforts and hard work of the exporters, Dr Sakthivel thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose clarion call to exporters further enthused the exporting community for such an outstanding performance. Dr Sakthivel also welcomed the steps taken by the government under the able and dynamic leadership of the Prime Minister and also the Union finance minister and the Union commerce and industry and textiles minister for showing confidence and trust on the exporters during these challenging times.

The FIEO president said RMG of all textiles and cotton yarn/fabrics/made-ups, handloom products etc, along with engineering goods, petroleum products, gems and jewellery, organic and inorganic chemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, electronic goods, plastic and linoleum and rice were among the top sectors which performed impressively during the month contributing to about $30 billion (constituting about 80 per cent of exports with a growth of 41 per cent during the month over December 2020).

Looking at the current trend, India is on course to achieving the $400 billion merchandise exports target for the fiscal, said FIEO president. He added that spectacular exports growth coupled with orders in hand will help in pushing India’s exports further during the next fiscal thereby aiming for exports in the vicinity of $525-530 billion during FY 2022-23. However, imports clocking $59.27 billion during the month with a very high growth of 38.06 per cent is a point of concern and should be analysed, as per Dr Sakthivel.

The FIEO chief is of the view that though the government has announced a slew of measures to support exports, the need of the hour is to soon announce extension of the interest equalisation scheme and allow transfer of MEIS and expand usages of RoDTEP and RoSCTL scrips.

Some of the other major issues which require the attention of the government are necessary steps with an option to support the sector in case of spread of the new variant of COVID-19, encouragement to overseas marketing for exports, fiscal and tax support to address logistics challenges, developing an Indian shipping line of global repute, restoration of facility for import of trimming and embellishments under customs notification No. 2/2021 dated 1st of February, 2021 and services rendered to foreign national and paid in free foreign currency to be given IGST/ITC Refund among others.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)