Brand equity fund raised

Hegde was critical of his own government, saying “the government is not giving that much importance to exports.” “India has to export or India will perish. That should be our slogan,” Hegde said, adding, “exporters should be treated with respect as they are serving the national interest.”

The minister said Indian exporters had not been given a level-playing field compared to their counterparts abroad. The major constraint to exports continued to be inadequate infrastructural facilities. Power tariff in India was much higher than in other countries, he said.

TheCommerce Ministry, he said, was committed to being world trade organisation (WTO)-consistent and was thinking of “lessening the burden of exporters.”

The ministry was in the process of eliminating all the hassles and paperwork of exporters. “We are at it,” he said.

Hegde said he was in favour of setting up of regional boards of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). The minister said he would visit chambers and trade bodies all over the country to address the grievances of exporters. Later, talking to reporters, Hegde declined to set an export target for the country for 1999-2000.

Referring to India’s disputes with the WTO, the minister said these were being looked into by his ministry.

“We do not want developed countries to find some excuses or other saying that this is not consistent with the WTO,” he said.

“It’s a great hindrance,” he said on the disputes. “We have to fight at every step. Ultimately we win but that’s a different matter,” he observed. Responding to questions atthe session, Commerce Secretary P P Prabhu strongly defended placement of import of second hand machinery under the restricted list in the modified Exim policy.

Noting that India had a large capital goods industry, he said imports in the sector went up by several times during 1998-99 compared to the previous year. “We have to update our technologies. Otherwise we will never have a capital goods industry,” he emphasised.

Henceforth, the centre would move away from setting up of Export Processing Zones (EPZS) and Free Trade Zones (FTZS). It would allow them to come up in the private and state government sectors. The centre was considering converting the present EPZS into FTZS, he said.

Prabhu said the ministry had plans to network all offices coming under it. The facility of electronic filing of applications by exporters would come into operation by August 15 in Bangalore also, in addition to the metros, he added.

Prabhu said the ministry also considering appointing ombudsmen in major ports of thecountry, including Chennai.