CII devises export boost plan for Indian industry

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Mar 26, 2020

The Confederation of Indian Industry has created a 10-point plan, which aims to boost Indian exports and counter the rising costs businesses face, due to transportation delays caused by the ongoing lockdown.

 
As India battles rising coronavirus cases and non-essential business grinds to a halt, the CII has recommended a number of measures to keep the Indian export market afloat. The CII has suggested that the government extend the 5% interest subvention scheme to all exporters to one-time extensions of customs duty payments and filing bill of entry, ET Bureau reported. 
 
“The short-term impact on exports has started showing up with exporters facing liquidity crunch as customers' payments are not coming through and shipments of ready goods are not able to leave the factory or lying at the port because of lock-down situation globally,” said the CII’s director general, Chandrajit Banerjee, ET Bureau reported. 

As part of the plan, the CII recommenced that export benefits mentioned in the current Foreign Trade Policy should be continued until June 30 or a new policy should be announced. The CII also suggested that consignments of products that are ready to be shipped should be given the all clear to be transported from the warehouse they are being held in to the relevant customs facility. 
 
Transportation delays have added extra costs to exporters’, importers’, and manufacturers’ balance sheets. To counter this, the CII has suggested expediting goods and service tax refunds to free up cash for businesses.
 
Many countries have asked all businesses to shop retailing and trading non-essential goods as global capitals find themselves under lockdown. The effects of the lockdown in India will be compounded by the global financial effects in other countries, which usually import large quantities of products from India.