DGFT Aims For $2-Trillion Of Exports By 2030, Yet To Finalise FY25 Projections
Total exports in FY24 were $778 billion, a slight increase from $776 billion in the previous year.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade announced on Friday that export projections for the current fiscal are still being finalised.
Efforts are underway to improve the ease of doing business, to meet the government's goal of achieving $2 trillion of exports by 2030. Total exports in FY24 were $778 billion, a slight increase from $776 billion in the previous year.
The Federation of Indian Export Organisations estimates the exports of the current fiscal to be about $890-910 billion. DGFT Santosh Kumar Sarangi noted that a proposal to extend the Interest Equalisation Scheme—expiring in June—is pending approval.
The scheme provides pre and post-shipment Rupee export credit, offering a 2% interest equalisation rate for manufacturers and merchant exporters dealing with 410 specified export items, and a higher rate of 3% for MSME manufacturers exporting any of these items.
FIEO Director General and Chief Executive Officer Ajay Sahai said that the industry has demanded restoration of the interest equalisation rates to 3% and 5%.
"The rates were reduced when the repo rate was lowered by RBI in the past, but now that the repo rate has increased by 2%, we have demanded that the original rates be restored. The proposal must be cleared by the Cabinet," Sahai told PTI.
On extending the remission of duties and taxes on export products to SEZs, Sarangi said that it will be done once they are integrated into the Indian Customs' electronic gateway.
It is the national portal of Indian Customs under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, which provides e-filing services to the trade, cargo carriers, and other trading partners electronically.
The DGFT official attributed the issues in the Export Data Processing and Monitoring System to technical glitches and added that those will be resolved by July.
The EDPMS (Export Data Processing and Monitoring System) is the platform that banks in India use to report export transactions.
Sarangi further said that the first phase of the ‘Trade Connect’ e-platform for Indian exporters will be unveiled within the next three months.
This platform will contain all information related to exports, markets, rules, and regulations in a single location. In the second phase, trade finance services will be integrated into the platform.
(With inputs from PTI)
