Parul
Services sector exports are likely to touch US$ 350 billion in the current fiscal, said SEPC. The export target for services and certain goods sectors was discussed in a meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
Abhay Sinha, Deputy Director-General, Service Export Promotion Council (SEPC), said the target has been revised from US$ 300 billion to US$ 350 billion for 2022-23.
India’s services sector exports touched an all-time high of around US$ 250 billion in FY22.
“Target is set in consideration to the sectors which couldn’t perform in the last 2 years due to the pandemic and hopefully will bounce back in FY’23, like travel and tourism, hospitality, education, and entertainment.
“Besides that, there are certain sectors that will be focused upon in FY’23… (such as) market research, consulting, engineering and construction,” he said.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President A Sakthivel flagged certain issues in the meeting.
Sakthivel said he has urged the ministry to push for a planned scheme providing marketing support with a corpus of at least Rs 1,000 crore to encourage MSMEs to showcase their products in the international market.
He also raised the issue of high prices of inputs that are posing a challenge to exporters as buyers are now reluctant to increase prices proportionately in view of sufficient inventory.
“In view of increasing trade deficit and surge in imports, a committee may be formed to evaluate the trend in imports and encourage domestic production of such products to reduce the increasing deficits,” Sakthivel said.
He added that there is a lack of clarity regarding the export of products to Russia following the US sanctions.
The US administration has provided exemption to the food, pharma, medical equipment and energy sectors from such sanctions, thereby bringing all other segments within the ambit of sanctions. “However, Russian banks are telling exporters that they can export any product and payment will be credited to their account,” he added.
Unfortunately, Indian banks are not clear whether in such cases they will be issuing the eBRC (electronic Bank Realisation Certificate), particularly for the sectors other than the three exempted ones, he said, adding some kind of clarification to Indian banks will be very handy.
