The services sector should aspire to overtake merchandise exports in the next financial years as the goods trade faces headwinds in the current scenario, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said Thursday.
The services sector should be targeting $ 450 billion in exports in 2025-26, up from $ 385 billion to $ 390 billion that should be the goal for this financial year, he said while addressing the Inaugural Session of Nasscom Global Confluence 2025.
In 2023-24 the services exports stood at $ 341 billion, growing at 4.85% on year. In April-February the services exports were up 14.1% to $ 354.9 billion. Goods exports on the other hand contracted 3.1% on year to $ 437 billion in 2023-24. This year in April-February the goods exports were up 0.06% to $ 395.6 billion.
For getting to $ 385 billion services exports the growth required is 12.9%, which is lower than what has been achieved so far this financial year. For the target of $ 450 billion the growth of 16.8% will be required.
The minister aid achieving 15% to 18% growth in services exports is feasible as newer technologies get introduced and greater number of Global Capability Centres of multinational companies open up in the country. Goyal said at last count the number of GCCs operating in India hit 1650.
He said while Information Technology and Information Technology enabled Services accounts for $ 200 billion of total services exports, other growth areas for services like tourism come back in a big way.
Goyal, however, said the IT and ITeS will have to remain in the forefront. He said because of the learnings during COVID while delivering services remotely, the complaints over non availability of enough H1B visas is hardly heard.
The minister said he would still prefer that more and more services are delivered from remote locations and not from client locations. This would add to the competitiveness of the services by reducing costs. He said another benefit of delivery from home would be that salaries are paid in India. Taxes on the salaries will also be collected in India and the boost to the economy from their consumption would give more benefit to the Indian economy.