In the past years, especially in 2013-14, Foreign Trade hasn’t been the strength of the Indian Economy. The worst hit was the merchandise exports, all thanks to the petroleum products, which played spoilsport in this steady downfall.

1. “HOW THE GOVERNMENT POLICY HAS IMPACTED INDIAN
EXPORT INDUSTRY – KEY UPDATES”
In the past years, especially in 2013-14, Foreign Trade hasn’t been the strength of the Indian
Economy. The worst hit was the merchandise exports, all thanks to the petroleum products,
which played spoilsport in this steady downfall. Not just this, a lot of sectors that have been
the major contributors to India’s total export basket have shown poor performance. These
sectors include gems and jewellery, chemicals, engineering goods, electronic goods.
However, not all is gloomy. In fact, the World Economic Outlook published by the IMF and
the World Bank forecasts that India's economy may rise to 7.5 percent in 2015 as opposed
to 7.2 percent in 2014. Exchange rate dynamics and geopolitical risks will be playing a major
role in the same, and hence, it is extremely important for India to exhibit reasonable growth
in exports.
Much to the delight of the small scale and medium scale exporters and stock lot suppliers,
the Foreign Trade Policy for the term 2015-2020 is focusses on improving the ease of doing
business. In addition, the policy lays down a clear road map for exports for the coming
years. Here, the government has particularly laid emphasis on trade facilitation. Its plan of
action includes cutting down the time and transaction costs required in exports by moving
towards digitization and paperless working in a 24 X 7 environment. This is not all. In an
effort to ease the entire process for merchandise and textile suppliers in India, a total of five

2. schemes have been merged into one single scheme namely Merchandise Export from India
Scheme. This will not only help to streamline the process for merchandise exports as well as
service exports, but will also be more in line with the WTO rules.
Moreover, the new FTP aims at integrating India’s export strategy with the flagship 'Make
in India' programme. It seeks to promote the indigenous capital goods production by
reducing Export Obligation for domestic procurement under EPCG scheme, by almost 15
percent. Also, it is proposed to give a higher level of rewards to products with high domestic
content and value addition.
Meanwhile, it has been reported the government is set to reintroduce the interest
subvention scheme, which lapsed in April last year, soon for some labour intensive sectors.
This will be a welcome change, especially for the suppliers with surplus stock. Even in the
earlier terms, this scheme has proved its mettle by being extremely beneficial for the small
and medium enterprises engaged in exports. The FTP, therefore, rightly, wants our
exporters to get prepared to run on competitive advantage instead of expecting tariff sops
to come their way.
While the government is taking steps to bring about more than just a positive change for the
Exporters, it is up to the small and medium scale enterprises to step up and work in tandem
with the newly introduced schemes to extract the maximum possible benefits.
In the past years, especially in 2013-14, Foreign Trade hasn’t been the strength of the Indian
Economy. The worst hit was the merchandise exports, all thanks to the petroleum products,
which played spoilsport in this steady downfall. Not just this, a lot of sectors that have been
the major contributors to India’s total export basket have shown poor performance. These
sectors include gems and jewellery, chemicals, engineering goods, electronic goods.
However, not all is gloomy. In fact, the World Economic Outlook published by the IMF and
the World Bank forecasts that India's economy may rise to 7.5 percent in 2015 as opposed
to 7.2 percent in 2014. Exchange rate dynamics and geopolitical risks will be playing a major
role in the same, and hence, it is extremely important for India to exhibit reasonable growth
in exports.
Much to the delight of the small scale and medium scale exporters and stock lot suppliers,
the Foreign Trade Policy for the term 2015-2020 is focusses on improving the ease of doing
business. In addition, the policy lays down a clear road map for exports for the coming
years. Here, the government has particularly laid emphasis on trade facilitation. Its plan of
action includes cutting down the time and transaction costs required in exports by moving
towards digitization and paperless working in a 24 X 7 environment. This is not all. In an
effort to ease the entire process for merchandise and textile suppliers in India, a total of five
schemes have been merged into one single scheme namely Merchandise Export from India
Scheme. This will not only help to streamline the process for merchandise exports as well as
service exports, but will also be more in line with the WTO rules.
Moreover, the new FTP aims at integrating India’s export strategy with the flagship 'Make in
India' programme. It seeks to promote the indigenous capital goods production by reducing

3. Export Obligation for domestic procurement under EPCG scheme, by almost 15 percent.
Also, it is proposed to give a higher level of rewards to products with high domestic content
and value addition.
Meanwhile, it has been reported the government is set to reintroduce the interest
subvention scheme, which lapsed in April last year, soon for some labour intensive sectors.
This will be a welcome change, especially for the suppliers with surplus stock. Even in the
earlier terms, this scheme has proved its mettle by being extremely beneficial for the small
and medium enterprises engaged in exports. The FTP, therefore, rightly, wants our
exporters to get prepared to run on competitive advantage instead of expecting tariff sops
to come their way.
While the government is taking steps to bring about more than just a positive change for the
Exporters, it is up to the small and medium scale enterprises to step up and work in tandem
with the newly introduced schemes to extract the maximum possible benefits.