Exports down for 17th month; FIEO expects exports to move into positive territory from June

New Delhi, May 14 (KNN) The exports again dipped for 17th month in a row in April by 6.7% to $20.5 billion due to continuous fall in shipments of petroleum and engineering products.

Imports too dipped by 23.1% to $25.4 billion in the month under review as against $33 billion in April 2015.

The commerce ministry in a statement said that the trend of falling exports is in tandem with other major world economies. The growth in exports have fallen for USA (3.87 per cent), European Union (0.04 per cent), China (25.34 per cent) and Japan (1.10 per cent) for February 2016 over the corresponding period of previous year as per WTO statistics.

Reacting on falling of exports, Federation of India Exports Organisation (FIEO) said that downfall in exports has been arrested to some extent both in March & April,2016 and he hoped that exports will move into positive territory from June onwards. 14 out of 30 products, for which data has been released, are showing positive growth. Gems & Jewellery, Organic &Inorganic Chemicals, Plastic goods, Electronic goods have shown promising results which augur well for the future.

Imports during April, 2016 were valued at US$ 25413.72 million (Rs.168923.71 crore) which was 23.10 per cent lower in Dollar terms and 18.54 per cent lower in Rupee terms over the level of imports valued at US$ 33047.02 million (Rs.207380.63 crore) in April, 2015., Said the commerce ministry.

FIEO President S C Ralhan said that while decline in Imports is encouraging to manage trade deficit and it may help in giving a fillip to domestic manufacturing for which the figures points to a topsy-turvy path as reflected in IIP numbers. He re-iterated the need for all out support to make manufacturing competitive to boost exports and address employment challenges.

Ralhan said that some of the recent initiatives like extension of MEIS benefit to all countries and thereby dispensing with landing certificate will add to the competitiveness while simultaneously reducing transaction cost. The revised threshold limit for status holders will enable many more companies to claim such status so as to get various non-fiscal benefits including expeditious clearance of import-export cargo.

However, he urged the Government to address the problem of simultaneous availment of EPCG and SHIS which has landed many exporters into problem for no fault of their own besides releasing of target plus benefits and incremental exports incentivization benefit for 2013-14. (KNN Bureau)