New Delhi, June 15 (KNN) Responding to moderate export growth of 3.93 percent during May, 2019, FIEO President, Ganesh Kumar Gupta said that Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sectors are still facing the problem of liquidity besides various other challenges including uncertainties owing to tariff war, volatility in commodities/currencies, rapid rise in trade restrictive measures and constraints on the domestic front.

He said that such a growth in exports is a reflection of extremely modest growth in global trade and increasing protectionism.

Only 17 out of 30 major product groups were in positive territory during May 2019 including electronic goods, organic & inorganic chemicals, drugs & pharma, RMG of all textiles, plastics & Linoleum, ceramic products & glassware, handicrafts, commodities besides a few plantation and agri products have shown positive growth during the month, he added.

He expressed his concerns on the rising trade deficit primarily on account of swelling crude import bill with further northward movement of prices and ban on Iranian imports along with rising gold import.

He asserted that domestic issues including access to credit cost of credit especially for merchant exporters, interest equalization support to all agri exports, benefits on sales to foreign tourists and exemption from IGST under Advance Authorization Scheme with retrospective effect should be seriously looked into. Besides these, budgetary support for marketing and exports related infrastructure are some of the other key issues, which needs immediate attention of the government in the upcoming budget.