FIEO appreciate proactive support to exports and initiatives of government

Ludhiana, January 9, 2019: Mr Ganesh Kumar Gupta, President, FIEO complimented Mr Suresh Prabhu, Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation Minister for presiding over a meeting to discuss problems faced by the export sector. Minister of State for Finance, senior officers from Finance, Revenue, DGFT and Commerce Department and President and DG & CEO, FIEO, Chairman of Gems & Jewellery, Chairman EEPC, representatives of Pharmexcil and Chemexcil were also present in the meeting. Mr Prabhu highlighted the declining trend of export credit in recent months and asked Ministry of Finance that banks may be instructed to encourage flow of credit to export sectors particularly to MSME for giving a push to employment. Commerce Minister also urged Ministry of Finance to put ITC refund online so as to make the export refund seamless helping exporters and ensuring transparency and accountability. Mr Ganesh Kumar Gupta highlighted the problem of pre-import under advance authorisation and requested to bring the notification deleting the condition with retrospective effect to give relief to exporters. Mr Suresh Prabhu asked DGFT and DoR to look into it so that bonafide exporters are not harassed. President FIEO also raised banking issues such as caution listing of exporters, third party/ third country exports and list of items to be traded with Iran. It was decided that Department of Financial Services will discuss such issues with banks in the meeting scheduled on January 22, 2019. Mr Gupta acknowledged the support given by the Government to exporters by extending interest equalisation scheme to exporters and operationising trade with Iran.