Commerce Ministry gets tangled in export data targets

Moreover,the strategic plan paper on the commerce ministry website mentions the exports for 2010-11 as $225 billion while the actual exports recorded were $246 billion.

Keeping in line with the cherished goal of the economy to grow at a double digit rate over the next decade,the aspiration of the department is to achieve an average annual growth of exports of 25 per cent over the next six years. Working on this aspiration,the department aims to double its merchandise exports from $225 billion in 2010-11 (expected) to $450 billion in 2013-14 and then to $750 billion in 2016-17, the plan says.

The strategy paper for doubling the export in three years was unveiled by commerce minister Anand Sharma on May 3,2011. The target was to double the countrys merchandise exports in dollar terms over the next three years from $246 billion in 2010-11 to $500 billion in 2013-14.

To realise it,exports would have had to grow at a compound average growth of 26.7 per cent per annum.

However,given the global economic slowdown exports were poor in 2012-13,and fell for the first time in three years by 1.8 per cent to $300.6 billion,taking the countrys trade deficit to a record high level of $191 billion. The export target for 2012-13 was $360 billion.

In a meeting held on May 5 by commerce secretary SR Rao,it was decided to formulate a discussion paper as part of the mid-term review of the existing strategy paper. The paper for discussion is likely to be finalised by June end and the final strategy draft by December 2013.

Hard Target

A strategy paper by the ministry sets the target for 2013-14 at $450 billion. However,a written reply of MoS for commerce in the Rajya Sabha sets the target at $325 billion

The ministrys website mentions exports for 2010-11 as $225 billion while the actual exports recorded was $246 billion