‘Expectations not met’

Bearing the brunt of a fast appreciating rupee, the country’s exporting community had high hopes from this year’s budget.

Bearing the brunt of a fast appreciating rupee, the country’s exporting community had high hopes from this year’s budget. Having announced three packages in the last 12 months, the finance minister had only a few words of sympathy to offer today.

“Merchandise exports have come under pressure due to rupee appreciation and may just fall short of the target of $160 billion. Relief was given to exporters in three tranches — amounting to over Rs 8,000 crore. The government is sensitive to the needs of the export sector and will respond sympathetically to the situation,” Chidambaram said.

Though allocation for sectors like textiles has gone up, exporters are clearly dissatisfied. “The Budget has not addressed the problems faced by exporters in the past one year. Proposals to provide zero rating of exports through refund of state and local taxes, exemption from FBT and from all service taxes on services have not been considered,” said Federation of Indian Export Organisations president Ganesh K Gupta.

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Textile sector, which has borne the maximum brunt of rupee appreciation, is dismissive of steps like the hike in allocation for TUFS and SITP. Allocation for TUFS has been increased from Rs 911 crore to Rs 1,090 crore while provision for SITP has been maintained at Rs 450 crore.

“We are extremely disappointed with the Budget, which has nothing to address the growing crisis in this highly labour intensive industry,” said Confederation of Indian Textile Industry chairman P D Patodia. “Ignoring our concerns will have the consequence of a large number of units across the textile value chain getting either closed or reducing their level of operation — leading to substantial increase in unemployment. Loan defaults and an increasing number of NPAs will be another immediate consequence.”

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