The government has worked out the draft of the Export Promotion Mission (EPM) and under the programme, 12 sub-schemes will be made operational to meet the credit needs of exporters and provide marketing support and help them navigate regulatory hurdles.
The mission that was announced in this year’s budget will have two lead categories- Providing Trade Finance Support (NIRYAT PROTSAHAN) and Driving International Holistic Market Access Initiative (NIRYAT DISHA), according to officials. The draft has been shared with the export promotion councils for their views and a presentation on it was made in a meeting held on Wednesday.
For credit support six sub-schemes are under consideration. There is a proposal for a separate credit facilitation scheme for new exporters and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) called the Niryat Rin Vikas (NIRVIK). Another will facilitate finance to emerging export opportunities- new markets or products.
The objective of the NIRVIK is to establish a dynamic and responsive interest equalisation support framework that enables MSMEs to access rupee export credit at globally competitive rates.
“This will be achieved through the periodic notification of NIRVIK rates, which will be benchmarked against prevailing interest rates offered to exporters in countries that compete with India in international trade,” the official added. It would be applicable to MSME exporters availing export credit, subject to a specified cap limit for interest subvention. However, this cap shall be reviewed periodically based on the actual uptake.
Making alternate financing instruments like bill discounting or factoring more accessible, attractive and cheaper is also part of the credit support scheme.
Collateral Support for Export Credit for MSME exporters and E-commerce Export Credit Card Sub-Scheme is also being looked at. United platform for trade documentation and financing BharatTradeNet will also be part of the PROTSAHAN scheme.
The collateral support scheme will provide back-up collateral upwards of 80% or as decided by the collateral support agency to MSMEs and e-commerce exporters, based on their track record.
The NIRYAT DISHA initiative will provide support to exporters to help them navigate compliance requirements and deal with regulatory issues.
The six main programmes that will be under DISHA are Technical Regulations and Compliance Enablement (TRACE); Focussed Market Access Initiative (FMAI); Facilitating Export Logistics and Overseas Warehousing (FLOW); Global Outreach for Branding Exports (GLOBE); Export Planning and Development for Districts and Clusters (EXPAND); R&D Support Sub-Scheme for India Centre for Lab Grown Diamond (InCent-LGD) at IIT Madras, Chennai.
All these schemes will be implemented through a digitally enabled application and monitoring system, anchored around an online ‘intent to claim’ process.
The allocation for the mission for this year has been lept at Rs 2250 crore of which Rs 200 crore is for Market Access Initiative (MAI) and Rs 50 crore is for lab grown diamonds. Rest of the amount is for designing and implementing some schemes from the list of 12.