RBI examining priority sector lending norms for export credit: Piyush Goyal
The minister said certain enabling guidelines are under consideration and when issued, those are expected to release an additional Rs 35,000 to Rs 68,000 crore export credit under priority sector.
Department of Financial Services (DFS) has informed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is examining the priority sector lending norms for promoting export credit, said Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
He added that certain enabling guidelines are under consideration and when issued, those are expected to release an additional Rs 35,000 to Rs 68,000 crore export credit under priority sector.
"DFS has informed that RBI is currently examining the priority sector lending norms for export credit and certain enabling guidelines are under consideration," he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
He also said that as per data compiled by RBI, the balance outstanding for export credit by all scheduled commercial banks increased from Rs 1,85,591 crore as on March 31, 2015 to Rs 2,43,890 crore as on March-end 2018 before declining to Rs 2,26,363 crore as on March 31, 2019.
He added that the government has taken various steps to increase the flow of credit to micro, small and medium enterprises' (MSMEs) exporters. The measures include raising interest subsidy rate from three percent to five percent, among others.
In June 2019, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Steel, said boosting engineering goods exports would generate jobs in the manufacturing, especially in the MSME sector.
They assured the steel industry that the commerce and industry and steel ministries would make all efforts to ensure that engineering goods exports double in the next five years and reach $200 billion by 2030.
In February 2019, then-Union Minister for MSME Giriraj Singh had said the value of MSME-related products exported during 2017-18 has reached $147,390.08 million or Rs 10,44,921 crore. He added that this data was received from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS).
The minister also described other measures undertaken by the government to boost MSME exports. “These include efforts made under Make in India Programme, Promotion of Ease of Doing Business, improved availability of credit through MUDRA, Stand up India, and schemes such as ‘Merchandise Exports from India Scheme’ (MEIS) for incentivising export of specified goods to specified markets,” he said.
