• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Govt may ask CII to run brand equity fund

Our Bureau

KOLKATA, Nov. 29

AS part of the plan to professionalise the working of India Brand Equity Fund (IBEF) - administered by the Ministry of Commerce - for the promotion of Indian brands abroad, the Government is likely to ask the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to take over the responsibility of running the fund.

The plan to fine-tune IBEF was taken at a Secretary-level meeting held recently.

IBEF has been set up with the basic objective of making the `Made in India' label a symbol of quality, competitive price, reliability and service to the customer, and to project India as a reliable supplier of quality goods and services. Commerce Ministr y sources told Business Line that of the shortlisted industry organisations such as CII, FICCI, Assocham, etc., the choice was likely to veer towards CII.

This is said to be part of the overall plan to de-bureaucratise all export promotion schemes such as Market Development Assistance (MDA) and the newly-created Market Access Initiative Fund (MAIF) for greater utilisation by exporters.

While MDA and MAIF are run with the help of annual budgetary grants, IBEF is the only one with a fixed corpus, said to be around Rs 136 crore. The scheme is managed by a trust.

As indicated by the Union Commerce Secretary, Mr Prabir Sengupta, recently, the Government is also considering a kind of convergence between the three schemes.

As per the IBEF eligibility criteria put in place, the product should be of long-term export interest to the country and has to be categorised by a high degree of value addition within the country.

The exporter applying for funds under IBEF should preferably have a logo attached to the products that reflects the distinctive nature of the products.

The focus, according to the sources, will be on individual products and brands.

The exporter or promoter should be able to generate a third of the promotional expenditure and the maximum funding would be to the extent of two-thirds (50 per cent for big companies) of the total expenditure.

The sources also said that for MAIF, a budgetary grant of Rs 15 crore on a re-appropriated basis has already been made for the remaining portion of the current fiscal.

For the next fiscal, coinciding with the first year of the 10th Plan, an amount well in excess of Rs 50 crore is likely to be provided.

Specific projects of some of the major export promotion councils (EPCs), concerning market studies, have already been cleared for funding under MAIF and money has already been disbursed for such export-related research activities, the sources added.

In the case of MDA, the EPCs can take up market study as promotional activity on 60 per cent funding from the existing scheme, with the rest being met by contributions from members, trade, etc.

Specific market studies, which need funds over and above the MDA allocations, are put up to the Research & Programme Committee, Economic Division, Department of Commerce, for consideration from separate Budget provisions on the subject.