Market Access Initiative will strengthen commercial intelligence, says Maran

NEW DELHI, APRIL 1. The Commerce Minister, Mr. Murasoli Maran, today asserted that the Market Access Initiative announced in the Exim policy would strengthen commercial intelligence in a bid to push up exports to $75 billion annually by 2004.

The initiative, based on the U.S. model, had already been cleared by the Planning Commission, he said in an interview.

Expressing confidence that the Exim policy would catapult exports to $75 billion annually in the next three years, Mr. Maran said this was different from the medium-term strategy aimed at raising India's share to one per cent of the global trade by 2006-07.

Conceding that exporters were hit by high transaction costs in the country, he said ``a bold attempt would be made to rebate all indirect taxes affecting exports, besides a joint effort by the Centre, States and exporters to cut costs.

Elaborating on the initiative, the Minister said ``our strategy includes redefining the role of Commercial Attaches in our missions abroad.''

Allaying farmers' fears that the Exim policy had opened the floodgates to cheap imports, he said on the contrary, the thrust was to establish ``regional rural motors'' by boosting agri- exports through various measures enunciated in the policy.

He said if internationalisation of India's agriculture took place, the terms of trade, which had for long been in favour of industry, would shift in favour of agriculture.

It was estimated that every one per cent switch would divert about Rs. 8,500 crores additionally in favour of agriculture and that about $20 billion would be transferred to the agriculture sector from non-agriculture sector in the next few years, he said.

Also, this additional rural purchasing power that would be created with the encouragement of the Agri-Economic Zone would create a phenomenal effective demand in the country.

Mr. Maran quoted statistics to say that the lifting of quantitative restrictions of 714 items last year had not led to any surge in imports and on the contrary, the non-oil imports had recorded a negative 8 per cent growth ``to our surprise.''

He assured that the Government would ``jump into action'' in the event of any unwarranted surge in imports of essential and farm products following the total dismantling of QRs from today.

It was precisely for this reason that a ``war room'' containing Secretaries in the Government had been set up to monitor import levels of 300 sensitive items including poultry, milk, fruit and other edible items.

Scotching rumours that Exim policies would be dispensed With in future, Mr. Maran said as long as planning continued in the economy, both the annual and five-year Exim policies would remain in the country.

Declining to hazard a guess on export growth target for 2001- 02,the Minister said he would hold a meeting with exporters after the passage of the Finance Bill in Parliament and announcement of the monetary and credit policy by the Reserve Bank. External conditions, including the possible slowdown of the U.S. And Japanese economies would have to be taken into consideration before arriving at a consensual growth target for the current fiscal.

On the possibility of involving cooperatives and Panchayat Raj bodies in Agri-Export Zones, Mr. Maran said it was a State subject. However, the Centre was not averse to this proposal.

The purpose of Agri-Export Zones was to fill the ``critical gaps'' and cited the example of mango exports which was hit due to lack of facility for vapour treatment to overcome the problem of fruit flies and worms. The Government was committed to protecting farmers. Following the lifting of QRs, ``nothing has happened to farmers. We will not permit that situation and 70 per cent of the population in dependent on agriculture, animal husbandry and agri-business.'' ``No Government worth its name will cause harm to the interest of the farming community,'' he added.

Exhorting the Indian industry not to shy away from competition, Mr. Maran said the Government would do everything possible to protect the interests of the domestic manufacturers to help them become more competitive. ``Of course, in the transition period, we will do everything to help the domestic industry. The transition period will be reasonable.''

``If one unit of an industry is closed, it may be because of inefficiency but if the entire industry is closed due to surge in imports, then the Government cannot keep quiet.

On reducing transaction costs, Mr. Maran said it was not in the hands of the Commerce Ministry alone. For example, the turn- around in Indian ports like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata was six to seven days, whereas in Singapore and Hong Kong, it was six to seven hours.

The Minister said 60 per cent of the Colombo port's income was due to arrival of Indian containers. However, with the privatisation of the Jawaharlal Nehru port terminal and one berth in Chennai, things had started improving. ``But none to deny the fact that competitive cost disadvantage per container in India was as high as $80 which needed to be pruned.''

- PTI

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : Exim policy a 'surrender' to developed nations:
           Left
Next     : Fast track courts to clear backlog of cases