Lok Sabha Question No. 2147 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-24
Subject: Suggestions made by FIEO
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: G. HARI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2147 TO BE ANSWERED ON 24 th  DECEMBER,2018

## SUGGESTIONS MADE BY FIEO

## 2147. SHRI G. HARI:

Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY ( वा ͨणÏय एवं उɮयोग मंğी ) be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Federation of India Export Organisation (FIEO) has suggested that the Government  should  focus  priority  on  boosting  exports  to  check  the  widening current account deficit;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the reaction of the Government thereto;
- (c) whether imposing curbs on imports may not have a significant impact and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether  FIEO  has  suggested  that  the  Government  should  not  restrict  imports  to address the rising current account deficit and fall in the rupee; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

okf.kT; ,oa m|ksx ea=ky; esa jkT; ea=h ¼Jh lh- vkj- pkS/kjh½

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI C. R. CHAUDHARY)

(a) to (e): The Federation of India Export Organization (FIEO),   in his talk with Press Trust of India,  has  suggested  that  the  government  should  not  restrict  import  to  address  rising current account deficit and fall in rupee.  FIEO has also suggested that if the government wants to impose curbs on non-essential items, they should consider product such as highend electronics  goods,  refrigerators,  watches,  gold  and  high-end  footwear  and  garments. Suggestions received by Government from FIEO/ Export Promotion Councils/other stakeholder time to time, which are taken into consideration as part of the ongoing regular process of review of trade policy.

In order to boost India's exports and reduce trade deficit, the Government has taken several measures through new Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 launched on 1 st April  2015,  its Mid-term Review released on December 5, 2017 and other policy measures taken from time to time. The key measures includes:

- i. FTP 2015-20 provides a framework for increasing exports of goods and services as well as generation of employment and increasing value addition in the country, in
2. line with the 'Make in India', 'Digital India', 'Skills India', 'Startup India' and 'Ease of doing business' initiatives.
- ii. The main policy objective is to enable India to respond to the challenges of the external  environment  keeping  in  view  the  rapidly  evolving  international  trading architecture  and  make  trade  a  major  contributor  to  the  country's  economic growth and development.
- iii. The policy provides the framework for promotion of exports through schemes of incentives  on  exports and  duty  remission/exemption  on  inputs  for  export production.
- iv. The policy introduces two new schemes, namely 'Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)' for  improving  export  of  specified  goods  by  merging  five  earlier schemes for better coherence and 'Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS)' for increasing exports of notified services. Duty credit scrips issued under MEIS and SEIS and the goods imported against these scrips are fully transferable. The MEIS scheme now covers 8057 tariff lines at 8 digits level to all countries.
- v. The  policy  includes  measures  to  nudge  procurement  of  capital  goods  from indigenous  manufacturers  under  the  EPCG  scheme  by  reducing  specific  export obligation from 90 percent to 75 percent of the normal export obligation.
- vi. The policy provides issue of Advance Authorisation to allow duty free import of inputs,  which  is  physically  incorporated  in  export  product  within  a  specified timeline.
- vii. Interest Equalization Scheme on pre and post shipment rupee export credit has been introduced from 1.4.2015 to help exporters in accessing credit at reduced rates.
- viii. 'Niryat  Bandhu  Scheme'  has  been  galvanised  and  repositioned  to  achieve  the objectives of 'Skill India' and trade promotion/awareness.
- ix. Trade facilitation and enhancing the ease of doing business measures have been taken with special focus on moving towards paperless working. The Government has launched a Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT) clearances project with effect from 1 st April, 2016. The scheme enables the importers/exporters to file a common electronic 'Integrated Declaration' on the Indian Customs Electronic Commerce/Electronic Data Interchange (EC/EDI) Gateway  i.e.  ICEGATE  portal.  India  also  ratified  the  WTO  Agreement  on  Trade Facilitation (TFA) in April 2016 for enhancing trade facilitation.
- x. A  new  scheme  called  'Trade  Infrastructure  for  Export  Scheme  (TIES)'  has  been launched  from  1 st April  2017  to  address  the  export  infrastructure  gaps  in  the country.
- xi. The Mid-term Review of Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 launched on 5 th December 2017 provides more incentives for export promotion.