New Delhi: Despite the growing protectionism, exports are expected to record a growth of about 15-20 per cent to touch $350 billion in the current fiscal on account of number of factors including the rise in commodity prices, exporters body FIEO said on Tuesday.
“Growth is looking promising this fiscal. Indian exports, which are hovering at around $300 billion, should show 15-20 per cent growth so as to reach $ 350 billion in this fiscal,” said Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) president Ganesh Gupta.
“The northward movement in petroleum and commodity prices would also add to export growth. The recent depreciation of indian rupee is also supporting exports though its impact varies from sector to sector and from company to company,” said FIEO chief.
Mr Gupta said that although exports have recorded growth in FY18, labour intensive sectors such as carpet and handicrafts have definitely dented the job creation opportunities.
“On a rough estimate, over $1 million exports create 100 jobs. Therefore, additional exports of $27 billion in FY18 should have created 2.7 million jobs in exports,” he added.
In FY18, exports stood at about $ 303 billion. FIEO said that as much as Rs 20,000 crore is pending with the government on account of GST refund, creating liquidity crisis for exporters.
Mr Gupta said the delay in refund is mainly impacting small exporters who provide jobs in labour intensive sectors.
“Liquidity is a major area of concern particularly for MSME exporters who constitute the bulk of exports in high employment intensive sectors. The challenges on GST front are continuing though the fortnight clearance drive, which was highly successful, gave us the hope that refund will be provided on real time basis,” he said.
While claims of over Rs 7,000 crore were cleared in March, the amount in April is little over Rs 1,000 crore, said FIEO chief.
“As per our estimate, refund of over Rs 20,000 crore are pending on account of IGST (integrated GST) and ITC (input tax credit) and many exporters have not been able to file the refund of ITC due to technical glitches as input tax credit and exports happened in different months,” he said.
