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From the President’s Desk…..
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My Dear Fellow Exporters,
Union Budget for the year 2008-09 has nothing substantial to boost the sagging morale of rupee-hit exporters, except the lip service made by our Hon’ble Finance Minister in saying, "Government is sensitive to the needs of the export sector and will continue to respond sympathetically as the situation demands." Budgetary proposals do not include fiscal measures recommended by Rangarajan Committee and Krishnamurthy Committee to relieve exporters from appreciating rupee.
Hon’ble Minister does concede that merchandise exports have come under some pressure due to appreciation of rupee and may fall short of the target of US$ 160 billion, but he is complacent with the growth statistics for April-December 2007-08, which reflects 21.8 per cent export growth. Hon’ble Minister has not taken into account the large-scale job loss that export industry is currently witnessing.
Refund of state taxes and local levies, exemption from FBT on genuine business expenses, tax exemption on all services used in the course of exports, were some of the minimum measures sought by the exporters to attain level-playing field, which our Hon’ble Minister ignored to consider.
The much demanded issues of abolition of ‘sunset’ clause for EOU, EHTP and STPI and temporary reintroduction of 80-HHC to encourage investment in export manufacturing also did not find favour with our Hon’ble Minister. Besides, no consideration was given by him to form an "Export Marketing Fund" for MSME sector when export orders are drying up.
Increased allocations for textiles upgradation fund, integrated textiles park and mega clusters schemes for handloom and handicrafts are some of the positive announcements made by the Hon’ble Minister, but these measures would not provide any immediate support to the textiles sector.
The only silver lining for the export sector is the gradual move towards GST by reducing excise duty from 16% to 14% and few concessions given to sports goods and gems & jewellery sectors through reduced customs duty on their inputs.
Yours
sincerely,
Ganesh Kumar Gupta
PRESIDENT
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Dear Readers, We have been trying to keep you regularly abreast with the activities undertaken by FIEO through FIEO NEWS. Attempts are also made to provide information on policy changes, market trends, and various burning issues of the export industry. We are looking for your valuable inputs on how to make FIEO NEWS more reader-friendly. We also look for your views, observations and experiences about the export-industry for publishing in FIEO NEWS. We especially request you to contribute features on export-related issue, which we shall be more than happy to publish in our bulletin with due acknowledgment. Editor FIEO NEWS E-mail: fieo@nda.vsnl.net.in |
