Nath’s ministry says no to Target Plus Scheme

The ministry replaced the scheme with two separate schemes the Focus Market Scheme and Focus Product Scheme, but streamlined the benefits to just 57 countries in South Africa and Latin America. “Even if the scheme could not be relaunched, at least the retrospective clause should have been removed as it hurts the interests of the exporters. By reducing duty credit entitlement to a standard 5 per cent, the financial plan of the exporters is in a disarray,” a CII official said.

The target plus scheme rewarded exporters with turnover in excess of Rs 1000 crore on the basis of incremental exports based on three separate slabs between 5-15 per cent. Industry estimates suggest that exporters across the country stand to lose around Rs 2,500 crore on account of the change in schemes. CII also made a host of suggestions to strengthen the export infrastructure and simplifying procedures.

“We have suggested that four ports should be dedicated exclusively for exports as it would partially solve the problem of congestion in ports,” said CII international trade policy and exports committee chairman Sanjay Budhia. As the next step representatives from shipping and ports will meet the industry on September 20 to discuss the modalities. The chamber has also mooted setting up an inter ministerial group between commerce and finance ministeries and DGFT in partnership with the industry to expedite resolution of regulatory issues like issuance of notifications and their implementation.