Exporters demand fiscal support in Budget

New Delhi: Exporters on Thursday demanded measures such as creation of a fund and credit at affordable rates in the forthcoming Budget to boost the exports and create jobs.

In a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar is affecting exports' competitiveness and due to that the sector requires more support. "Creation of employment is the biggest challenge faced by the country....We would urge the government to provide fiscal support to units who provide additional employment in the export sector. Such a scheme will also help workers move from informal employment to formal employment," the federation said. Incentives may be provided based on twin criteria of growth in exports and growth in workers so that while on the one hand exports are increased, on the other hand, employment intensive units also get a boost, it said adding when global demand is declining, it becomes all the more necessary to go for aggressive marketing. However, most of the Indian companies are cutting their marketing expenditure in view of the contraction and this may impact the country as if Indian products are not visible in the market, FIEO said.

"The support given under Market Development Assistance (MDA) scheme with total allocation of less than Rs 200 crore, for promoting exports to $460-470 billion is just a drop in the ocean. "Therefore, for aggressive marketing, there is a need for creation of an Export Development Fund with a corpus of minimum 0.5 per cent of preceding year's exports," it suggested.