The Federation of India Export Organisations (FIEO) wants government backing to arrest falling exports.FIEO president SC Ralhan said the trade data for the month of the March, 2015 showed a decline of over 21 per cent in exports and close to 13.5 per cent in imports.
Ralhan said that continuous slowdown in demand in global markets and liquidity problem are responsible for the double digit negative growth in exports during the last quarter of the fiscal 2014-15. What has become extremely worrying is the fact that the decline during the last quarter of FY 2014-15 was on a low base as exports declined in all the three months of the quarter.
Among the few sectors that showed growth in the April 2014-Feb 2015 period was textiles and allied products that grew by just 1.57 per cent overall. While export of cotton yarn fell over 13 per cent, cotton fabrics and madeups showed a rise of 8.55 per cent. Cotton ready made garments, including accessories rose 2.96 per cent while man-made yarn, fabrics and madeups fell 11 per cent.
The FIEO chief said that almost all major sectors of exports including engineering goods, petroleum products, gems and jewelry, drugs and pharmaceuticals and organic and inorganic chemicals have shown negative during the last three months. These sectors together account for over two third of India's exports. Uncertainty on policy front and high cost of credit also had a role in the decline, although on a smaller scale.
Ralhan urged the government to declare exports as priority sector and restore interest subvention scheme to exporters to arrest the fall in exports. He hoped that the new Foreign Trade Policy would provided a stable framework though many products under MEIS scheme require higher support to sail through in such difficult situation of extreme volatility in markets and currencies.
