Merchandise exports crossed target, as monthly goods exports crosses highest-ever USD 42 Billion mark: FIEO President

Ludhiana, April 13, 2022: Reacting to the March 2022 Trade Data, FIEO President, Dr A Sakthivel said that the highest-ever exports of over USD 42 billion during the month has once again showcased the continuous resilience of India's exports sector. The hard work and the outstanding performance shown by the Exim community has not only given a boost to the sector, but has also helped the economy’s growth recovery process in a big way, with a hope to further give a boost to the economy in the coming days. With monthly exports crossing well over the USD 30 billion mark all throughout the fiscal, yet another remarkable milestone has been achieved not only crossing the USD 400 billion mark but also almost touching a phenomenal figure of USD 420 for the fiscal adding about USD 130 billion in goods exports compared to previous fiscal.

Praising the excellent effort and hard work of the exporters, Dr Sakthivel thanked the Hon’ble Prime Minister, whose vision and belief on the exporting community and his clarion call to the exporters further enthused them to come out with such an stupendous performance. Dr Sakthivel also welcomed the steps taken by the government under the able and dynamic leadership of the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and also the Union Finance Minister and the Union Commerce & Industry and Textiles Minister for showing confidence and trust on the exporters during these challenging times.

The FIEO President said that the top sectors, which has performed impressively during FY 2021-22 were Engineering Goods, Petroleum Products, Gems & Jewellery, Organic & Inorganic Chemicals, Electronic Goods, Cotton Yarn/Fabrics/Made-ups, Handloom Products etc., Agricultural products including Wheat, Rice, Sugar and coffee, Dairy products and Jute including floor covering. Out of these, many of them were labour-intensive sectors contributing majorly to the exports basket, which itself is a good sign, further helping job creation in the country. Further, it is encouraging to see that India's exports to developed economies including US, Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong, UK, Belgium and Germany saw a quantum jump during the previous fiscal, which also showcases the increasing strength of manufacturing in exports.

Exports are now set to transform the Indian economy. What is more important is to build on it as we will have benefits of new FTAs/CEPAs and the PLI Scheme backing us. We will build on such remarkable achievements, exuded Dr A Sakthivel.

The FIEO Chief is also of the view that though the government has announced a slew of measures to support exports including the recent announcement of the extension of the interest equalisation scheme, extension of the FTP 2015-20 by another 6 months and extension of time for filing of MEIS/RoSCTL/ROSL scrip, however to build on this remarkable achievement and grow further during the new fiscal, there is a need to  increase the validity of scrips to 24 months and link transferability with realisation, extend RoDTEP to EOUs, SEZ and Advance Authorisation, expand usages of RoDTEP and RoSCTL scrips and logistics support for the sector looking at the rising freight cost.