Even as exporters are likely to seek more sops, including tax exemption on export income, at a high-level meeting with the Centre on Wednesday, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, on Tuesday said there would be no more tax incentives till the next Budget.

Meanwhile, commerce and industry minister, Kamal Nath, told reporters that the government is concerned about job losses in the export sector, adding that the Centre was mulling measures to minimise the pain.

Ahluwalia said, ?do not expect any tax rate changes between now and the next Budget.? ?What is most important in the next two months is to implement the stimulus package that has been announced. I do not see any tax rate change in the current fiscal year,? he added.

Echoing Ahluwalia, Nath too, maintained that the government was committed to helping exporters, but added, ?I have not talked (about sops). We have said we will meet the exporters and listen to them. We will then analyse the causes and see what needs to be done.?

A Sakthivel, president, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), the apex body for exporters, told FE , ?We will ask for a tax holiday on export income, an increase in the refunds through duty drawback and DEPB (Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme), a moratorium for two years on term loans, an exemption from service tax and fringe benefit tax, and export credit across the board at 7% interest rate.?

Wednesday?s meeting will be attended by Nath, Ahluwalia, Cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar, secretaries of the finance and commerce ministries and the heads of 26 export promotion councils (EPCs) and eight commodity boards. The meeting is being convened at the instance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also holds the finance portfolio.

Exporters will point out major demand slowdown in their primary markets like the US, European Union and Japan , and the contraction in exports for three consecutive months (October, November and December) this fiscal. Claiming that they do not have orders beyond February, exporters have said that if the government does not provide them more sops, exports for the fiscal would not even touch $170 billion, $30 billion short of target set by the government.

FIEO had said that if the present trend continues, there would be approximately 10 million job losses by March 2009. Sectors such as textiles, gems & jewellery, handicrafts and engineering will see job losses of more than a million each, it said.