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Exim policy on April 1; Hedge scales down '98-99 export growth rate from 20 pc to 5 pc

The Union government will announce the new export-import policy on April 1, Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde announced today.

Addressing an interactive strategy session on ''Acceleration of Exports" in Bangalore, he said that with great difficulty he had succeeded in persuading the Union Finance Minister and the Reserve Bank of India governor on the interest rate of loans and there won't be changes till March 31.

Regretting that Indians were not quality-conscious, which was very much needed if the country wanted to make an impact in the global market, he suggested establishing brand names as a means to attract the world market.

Barring a few exceptions, Indian products were poor in quality, in spite of sufficient technology and plenty of scope for expansion of trade and exports, he added.

Lamenting that the country's total exports were a mere $ 34 billion, a poor performance, considering its size and capacity, he said economic development and progress of any country would be measured by the export performance. The performance of small countries like Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and the Phillippines was far superior when compared to India, he noted.

Stating that the world trade had fallen and growth had declined to a mere one per cent, Hegde said many countries which had excellent performance in exports had suffered due to recession.

Even China had registered a negative growth, with the rate falling to five per cent from 15 per cent.

Hegde said the country hoped to achieve a 20 per cent growth this year. While a negative growth was registered for the first six months, a 2.5 per cent of growth was achieved only during the last two months (November and December).

In January the growth was 4.6 per cent and in the ultimate analysis, the growth would not be more than four to five per cent for 1998-99, he added.

Reacting to various lapses in the existing policies and procedural wrangles pointed out by several delegates, Hegde assured them that he would set right things. He said he would write to Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel urging him to reduce purchase tax and sales tax on coffee curers.

He also directed officials of various departments such as customs and excise to issue booklets from time to time on latest notifications.

The contention of one of the delegates took everyone by surprise, when he said that coffee seed, meant for exports, was being pilferaged by miscreants on the way to the shipping yard. Another delegate alleged that an organised armed gang was working in Sriperumbadur in Tamil Nadu. Hegde assured that he would write to the Tamil Nadu government to take appropriate action.

Hegde said similar interactive sessions would be organised in other cities such as Calcutta, Bombay and Ahmedabad to have first-hand knowledge about the exporters ideas.

UNI

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