Govt committed to synergise export promotion and internal trade: Piyush Goyal

The meeting chaired by the new commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, held a day long interaction with the industry and agriculture ministers of the states, industrialists, export promotion councils, and representatives of the economic and infrastructure ministries of the central government for boosting exports and domestic manufacturing and reducing trade deficit.

Among others, the meeting decided to expedite investigations on imports under the anti-dumping mechanism, particularly products of the MSMEs with the help of industry associations.

The meeting also deliberated on steps to boost exports of organic produce, and to examine ways to rationalise the mandi fees across states.

The top 50 tariff lines, which constitute 60 per cent of India’s import will be examined in detail for possible ways to reduce import dependence.

ECGC would fast-track the disposal of claims and put in public domain the pending claims for the benefit of the industry. Meetings with state export commissioners will be held on pre-announced fixed dates to discuss issues related to export infrastructure and state specific export strategies.

The government would work with the states to develop product specific clusters for 50 sectors with high manufacturing potential.

The concept of deemed approval for establishments, which currently require annual renewal of licenses will be explored in consultation with states.

DPIIT/DOC will evaluate state governments on a ranking framework on support provided to industry for manufacturing, exports and logistics support.

DPIIT will encourage states to leverage public procurement by implementing `Make in India’ in public procurement order.

DPIIT will also work with industry (including apex industry association like CII, FICCI, Assocham and PHDCCI) for organising a national investor promotion event in next 6 to 9 months.

Development of clusters for specific sectors, especially for job creating industries, will be pursued with states and industry.

APEDA will create a portal which will host the FPOs all over the country and link them to exporters.  

Earlier in his opening remarks the commerce and industry minister emphasised that Industry should move away from the mindset of government support and subsidy because there are larger issues which need to be addressed at a structural level. He urged the industry to focus on the root cause of the problem and increase our competitiveness in terms of quality and efficiency. He assured the industry that wherever there are genuine difficulties like increased cost of credit, easy availability of liquidity etc, will be resolved expeditiously. 

He highlighted the achievements of the government in terms of exports crossing half trillion mark for the first time with goods exports at all time high of $331 billion, “Ease of doing business” rank improving to 77 and logistics rank improving to 44th. Procurement of more than Rs25,000 crore have been undertaken by governments resulting in huge savings.