Union minister of state for commerce & industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said the Centre was committed to revive exports growth. In his keynote address at a meeting with exporters organised by FIEO (Federation of Indian Exporters Organisation), Scindia on Wednesday said that though in percentage terms, the exports have declined continuously over last ten months, there was a silver lining in terms of quantitative increase in exports from April this year onwards.

?The government’s priority was to ensure increase in exporter both in terms of the percentages and numbers?, the minister said. As per the data released, the July exports have fallen by 26% and now stand at $13.7 billion. However, the exports have been rising since April, 2009, when they had dipped to $10.7 billion. Highlighting the number of steps taken by the government, Scindia said the government had already given three economic stimuli accounting for Rs 1.86 lakh crore, extended the period of interest subvention besides taking measures to reduce both the regulatory and the compliance cost for exporters.

Spelling out the number of steps proposed to be taken by the government, Scindia said that the Foreign Trade Policy to be announced on August 27 would involve a number of steps to revive exports. He said the government would soon have a meeting of the Inter-State Council to discuss trade related issues including refund of duties to exporters so as to have uniform policies for industry across states.

He said the government was making all efforts to reduce the transaction cost for the exporters by removing the multiplicity of agencies to make the process as seamless as possible. Scindia also said that the GST, which would be implemented from April 1 next year would help exporters through benefit of 5% of freight on board on local levies.

The minister also asked the exporters to diversify beyond the three traditional markets of US, EU and Japan. He said the exporters should take advantage of the recently signed FTA with Asean to expand in South East Asian countries and also explore markets in West Asia and North Africa to give boost to exports.

He also asked the exporters to move up the value chain in order to capture new product markets.