Lok Sabha Question No. 3119 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-31
Subject: India’s Share in World Trade
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: ANANDRAO  ADSUL, SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE, KUNWAR PUSHPENDRA SINGH CHANDEL, DHARMENDRA YADAV, VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3119 TO BE ANSWERED ON 31 st   DECEMBER,2018

## INDIA'S SHARE IN WORLD TRADE

## 3119. SHRI ANANDRAO ADSUL:

DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

SHRI KUNWAR PUSHPENDRA SINGH CHANDEL:

SHRI DHARMENDRA YADAV:

SHRI VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT:

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

- (a) whether the Government proposes  to  raise  its  share  in  world  trade from 2.52  per cent at present to 3.5 per cent by 2020;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken by the Government in this regard;
- (c) whether it is a fact that Indian goods are less competitive in the world markets as logistics costs of exports are very high in the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government is planning to form a separate logistics department to deal with the issues such as rising costs in the sector which impacts global competitiveness of exporters;
- (e) if so, the details thereof along with the time by which a final decision is likely to be taken in this regard; and
- (f) whether the Government has taken steps to create trade zone in Bundelkhand and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

- (a): As  per  Foreign  Trade  Policy  2015-20,  the  Government  aims  to  increase  India's  Exports  of merchandise and services from US$ 465.9 billion to approximately US$ 900 billion by 2019-20 and to raise India's share in world exports (Goods and Services) from 2% to 3.5%.
- (b): In order to promote India's Exports, 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 include:
- (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 line with the Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, Start-up India and ease of doing business initiatives
- (ii)Facilitating Transparency through Ease of Doing Business and IT Initiatives
- (a)Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) online integrated with Customs ICEGATE.
- (b)Mandatory documents required for exports and imports reduced to 3 each.

(c)Import Export Code (IEC) integrated with PAN and MoU signed with GSTN for complete integration.

(d)Electronic bank realization certificate (eBRC) system shared with 14 State Governments for quick tax refunds.

(e)MoU signed with GST Network for integration of e-BRC with GSTN.

(iii)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.

(iv)The policy provides the framework for promotion of exports through schemes of incentives on exports and duty remission/exemption on inputs for exports production.

(v)The policy introduces two new schemes, namely Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) for improving exports of specified goods by merging five earlier schemes for better coherence and Service 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 digit level to all countries.

(vi)The policy includes measures to nudge procurement of capital goods from indigenous manufacturers under the EPCG schemes by reducing specific export obligations from 90 percent to 75 percent of the normal export obligation.

(vii)The policy provides issue of advance authorisation to allow duty free imports of inputs, which is physically incorporated in export product within a specified time line.

(viii)Interest Equalisation Scheme on Pre & Post Shipment Rupee Export Credit has been introduced from  01.04.2015  to  help  exporters  in  accessing  credit  at  reduced  rates.  Enhancement  of  Interest Equalization Rate from 3% to 5% for MSME Sector has been introduced under Interest Equalization scheme for pre & post shipment credit.

(ix) 'Niryat Bandhu Scheme' has been galvanized and repositioned to achieve the objectives of Skill India and Trade Promotion/Awareness.

(x)Trade facilitation and enhancing the ease of doing business measures have been taken with special focus on moving towards paperless working. The govt. has launched a single window interface for facilitating trade (SWIFT) clearances project with effect from 1 st Apr 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.

(xi)A new scheme namely Trade Infrastructure for Export Schemes (TIES) has been launched from 1 st April, 2017 to address the export infrastructure gaps in the country.

(xii)A  Logistics  Division  was  created  in  Department  of  Commerce  (DOC)  to  focus  on  improving logistics efficiency and enhancing growth.

(xiii)The Mid-term Review of Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 launched on December 5, 2017 focused on  emerging  exports  by  MSME  and  Labour  intensive  industries.  FTP  was  aligned  with  the  GST Regime.

(c): There is no official study that has assessed the logistics costs in the country.  However, some studies have assessed the logistics costs as 14% of the GDP in India as compared to 9% - 10% in some of the developed nations.

(d) & (e): The allocation of Business Rules have been amended on 7 th July, 2018 and a new Logistics Division  has  been  created  in  the  Department  of  Commerce.    The  mandate  of  this  Division  is 'integrated development of logistics'

(f): As far DOC is concerned, no such information is available.

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