The Centre, state governments and industry representatives will meet on January 8 to discuss ways to boost the country’s exports.

According to a Commerce Ministry official, the third meeting of the ’Council for Trade Development and Promotion’ will be chaired by the Commerce and Industry Minister, Suresh Prabhu.

The council was constituted to promote India’s overseas shipments. In its previous meeting in January last year, the council had discussed issues like improving export competitiveness and creating an environment conducive for promoting exports. They had also discussed about quality and standards of products.

The council acts as a platform to develop partnership with states with an aim to boost international trade. Members of the council are trade/commerce ministers of states and Union Territories, besides 14 secretaries of the central government, including commerce, revenue, shipping, civil aviation, agriculture, food processing and economic affairs.

The council also provides a platform to state governments and UTs for articulating their perspective on trade policy to help them develop and pursue export strategies in line with national foreign trade policy.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Kumar Gupta said they would raise the issues of GST refund and enhancing export-related infrastructure in states.

"Small and medium exporters are facing several issues related to Goods and Services Tax (GST) that need to be resolved. We would also seek greater support to improve infrastructure to increase the competitiveness of our products in global markets," Gupta said.

Sharad Kumar Saraf, Chairman, Technocraft India, too stated that more support needs to be extended to boost outbound shipments.

On December 5 last year, the government had extended incentives to sectors such as leather and agriculture with an aim to boost outward shipments that were disrupted by the implementation of GST.

Reversing the decline seen in October last year, the country’s total merchandise exports grew 30.55 per cent to $26.19 billion in November 2017. Cumulatively,exports during April-November 2017-18 increased 12.01 per cent to $196.48 billion.

 02 Jan 2018, 10:25 AM