Govt will be taking steps to boost exports : Nirmala Sitharaman

Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman today said that, Government has taken a number of steps like promoting access to new products and finding new geographical areas to boost exports.

The share of Indias export in global trade was 2.2 per cent in 2015, of which the share of merchandise exports was 1.6 per cent and commercial services 3.3 per cent, she said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour. Promoting access to new products, finding new geographical regions through market access initiatives and market development assistance schemes, promoting product standards, packaging and branding of Indian products and providing facility for duty free import of inputs and machinery required for export production are some of the steps being taken to boost exports, she said,

While government is taking a number of initiatives to increase exports, it is not possible to predict the exact outcome in terms of capturing greater market share in global trade. The annual exports will also depend on a large number of factors related to the global economy, as they shape in the future, Sitharaman said.

Also read : Ready to step in but will not mother and smother startups: Nirmala Sitharaman

A few days back the Centre had joined hands with 5 States to boost their startup policies. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has set up a hub which helps resolving queries and provides hand-holding support to startups. All these steps are part of the Startup Action Plan announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January.

The government unveiled a slew of incentives to boost startup businesses, offering them a tax holiday and inspector raj-free regime for three years, capital gains tax exemption and Rs 10,000 crore corpus to fund them. India has the third-largest number of startups globally. In the recent times the Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had asked the Finance ministry to consider raising tax holiday for startups to seven years to encourage budding entrepreneurs too.