Govt hints at hiking duty to curb farm imports
New Delhi: The government is keeping sufficient cushion to raise the effective rate of duty to the bound levels in order to prevent a surge in imports of farm products. At present, the effective or applied rate on most of them is 35 per cent or below against the bound rate varying from 50 per cent to 300 per cent, says the commerce ministry. Fortunately for the government, non-oil imports have risen by only 13.31 per cent during 2002-03 compared to oil imports which have increased sharply by 26.77 per cent during the same period. Usually, non-oil imports mirror the country’s economic growth. The share of oil imports in the country’s total import has risen from 13.86 per cent in 1998-99 to 29.92 per cent in 2002-03, whereas that of non-oil imports in total imports has declined from 86 per cent to 70 per cent in the same period.
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Exports to US log a smart 20 per cent jump
New Delhi: Merchandise exports to the United States have registered a smart 20 per cent growth during the first quarter of this year (January-March 2003), notwithstanding the weakening global economic activity and appreciation of the rupee vis-a-vis the American dollar. Exports are valued at $3.2 billion and imports at $1.2 billion, leaving a huge trade surplus in India’s favour, according to the latest data available with the commerce ministry. Financial-year wise, the data shows that exports to North America have been growing at a rapid pace during the past seven years having increased by around 26 per cent during 1997-98 to 2001-02, says a booklet titled “Exports: A Success Story”, just released by the ministry. During April-February 02-03, India’s exports to the US at $9852.00 million have recorded a positive 28.57 per cent growth over the $7662.58 million registered during April-February 01-02.

The share of India’s exports to the US out of India’s global exports has posted an increase of 21.02 per cent during this period compared to 19.32 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous year
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