The Hindu : `New policy would enhance trade'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 01, 2003

Business

Business

`New policy would enhance trade'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 31. Using all kinds of superlatives, the apex trade and industry bodies as well as associations of exporters generally hailed the new Exim Policy announced by the Union Commerce Minister, Arun Jaitley. While some described the new policy thrust as `bold and pragmatic', others felt that several proposals forming part of the policy would enhance India's international trade and business.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) reacted by calling the policy as proactive with a long-term perspective. This policy has put in place the building blocks for India to achieve one per cent share of world exports by 2007.

Terming the Exim Policy thrust as bold and pragmatic, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said the removal of five items from the restricted list of exports would contribute sizably to the overall export effort and help attain the goal of one per cent share of world trade. It said the accent on export of services, flexibility to the EPCG scheme and consolidation of agri-export zones and giving special focus on potential high growth areas were welcome steps. It particularly welcomed the steps enunciated to simplify exports and to implement electronic data interchange at the earliest. However, the policy makes no mention of removal of the restrictive provisions of the current transfer pricing rules.

Hailing the thrust on the services and agricultural sectors, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said it fully endorsed the big picture envisaged in the policy of identifying engines of growth and building on them.

"Procedural simplifications and the move to co-ordinate with the Finance Ministry are also extremely welcome," said the CII chief, Ashok Soota, adding that a significant feature of the policy was the initiative to proactively address the needs of different sectors and make significant changes.

Service exporters in sectors such as healthcare and entertainment can now use 10 per cent of their foreign exchange earnings to import office and professional equipment, spares and consumables duty free. In the case of hotels, the facility will be up to 5 per cent of foreign exchange earnings, he said.

The Engineering Export Promotion Council felt that the policy would have a positive impact on engineering exports.

The PHD Chamber President, P. K. Jain, said the exporting community would feel greatly relieved by the continuation of various duty neutralisation schemes as stability in the policies is essential, especially in the current scenario of global export pessimism and the emerging Iraq situation. Mr. Jain has strongly urged the Government to chalk out and publicise a road map in advance for the proposed consolidation of various export incentive schemes so that the exporting community has adequate time to adapt their operations to the likely changes.

The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) said the policy would give a boost to merchandise and services export. Vikram Thapar congratulated the Minister for giving a bold direction to tap the potential of the agriculture and service sectors and said export targets could be surpassed with more focus on expanding world-class infrastructure.

The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, while endorsing the policy, noted that acceptance of the industry's demand for continuation of the DEPB scheme augured well and would encourage exports of new products. The IACC chief, Vinod Chandiok, welcomed the business-like approach of the Government for partnering the private sector by taking up issues relating to cross-border movement of natural persons at multilateral forums.

While the Electronics and Computer Software Council said that the proactive measures announced would give a critical push to the services exports, MAIT, the apex body of IT hardware, said that the policy would immensely benefit the emergent area of technology exports related to IT sector.

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