Quick redressal of implementation issues at the ground needed to continue exports on growth path: FIEO President

The exports figure for the month of June, 2017, as expected, once again showed positive growth said FIEO President Mr Ganesh Kumar Gupta. However the growth during month was of concern as half of the sectors, 15 out of 30 major product groups, showed negative growth. FIEO President said that a sectoral analysis may be done to pin point factors responsible for decline in such sectors.

Mr Gupta said that Engineering goods, Petroleum, Organic & Inorganic chemicals, Marine exports, Plantations were some of the the sectors, which contributed to the positive growth in exports during the month. However, the decline in Pharma, Leather, Gems and Jewellery exports are a cause of concern which needs to be looked into as all the three are important from exports and employment perspective. FIEO President drew the attention towards implementation problems at the ground in GST which should be addressed on war footing else will affect exports in the current and next few months.

FIEO Chief said that the increasing imports are primarily on account of high imports of Petroleum, Electronic goods, Coal, Gold, Pearls, Precious and Semi-precious stones. Mr Gupta opined that Government needs to carefully watch imports under GST as complete set off of IGST may spur imports of finished goods adding to the challenges of domestic manufacturing. Mr Gupta said that the liquidity concern of the exports sector under GST should be addressed by providing across the board offsetting of high cost of credit and timely carry forward of taxes from pre-GST and expeditious refund.