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Open House with Commerce Secretary at Kanpur |
At an Open House organized by the Northern Region office of FIEO with Commerce Secretary Mr. G. K. Pillai in Kanpur on 14th June, exporters raised various issues concerning forex rates, transaction cost, foreign trade policy, fixation of SION by norms committee, DEPB rates, fixation of export obligation against EPCG licenses etc. Exporters also apprised the officials of excessive import of sandalwood oil taking place in the country harming the local industry and called for an embargo on it. Some exporters dealing with betel nuts demanded that they should be allowed to import betel from the ports of Mumbai, Kolkata and Cochin saying it would reduce inland freight cost for them. A request was made to include few more countries under the Focus Market scheme to widen its ambit. Exporters also requested that EOUs should be treated at par with SEZ units with regard to exemption from income tax.
On a suggestion made by FIEO Managing Committee Member Mr. Irshad Mirza for opening of ICD at Unnao, Commerce Secretary Mr. G K Pillai assured that the matter would be looked into by the Commerce Ministry. He also agreed to consider the demand of the exporters to increase the rates of refund of duty under various schemes. On rupee rise eroding the profitability of exports, Mr. Pillai said that the Commerce and Industry Minister had already conveyed his concerns over the issue to the Prime Minister who have assured that some remedial action would be taken soon.
Industrial Development Commissioner of UP, Mr. Atul Kumar Gupta said that the thrust of the Uttar Pradesh government was to promote public private partnership and the state policy in this regard would be announced shortly. He also said that the state export promotion bureau would be activated so that the state could pursue various proposals with the Centre.
Earlier, the Northern Region Chairman of FIEO, Dr. R. K. Dhawan while addressing the participants invited the urgent attention of the officials towards two major issues - appreciation of rupee and exemption of service tax. He informed that the exporters had suffered losses to the tune of Rs 46,000 crore on account of rising rupee and would suffer further losses if immediate remedial measures were not taken. On the issue of services tax on exports, he said the relief promised by the Commerce Minister under annual supplement to Foreign Trade Policy has yet to reach to the beneficiaries as there has been no official directive issued so far. He also said that certain decisions announced by the Commerce Secretary during earlier open houses organized by FIEO at Chennai and New Delhi were still awaiting official confirmation.
FIEO Director General Mr. Ajay Sahai raised the issue of exemption from additional customs duty and 4 percent special additional duty on transferability of DFIA. He also spoke about reviewing Export Obligation under EPCG Scheme in view of recent changes carried out in the Foreign Trade Policy. Mr Sahai said the Federation has already taken up these matters with the Commerce Secretary as well as the DGFT and some immediate action is required.
The open house organized by FIEO in association with Merchants’ Chamber of Uttar Pradesh and UP Leather Industries Association was also joined by Mr. B S Meena, Director General of Foreign Trade, Mr. Balvinder Kumar, Commissioner & Director of Industries of UP & MD, UPSIDC, Mr. Mahesh Chandra, Jt DGFT from Kanpur and Mr. Anil Singh, Jt. DGFT, Delhi. Trade representatives who joined the open house included, among others, Mr. Mukhtarul Amin, Chairman, Council of Leather Exports, Mr. S M Shahid, President, UP Leather Industries Association and Mr. R G Bagla, President, Merchants’ Chamber of Uttar Pradesh.
