FM Nirmala Sitharaman announces Rs 60,000 crore boost to exports, housing

IANS 14 September 2019

Economy & Nation

With GDP growth sliding to six-year low of 5 per cent in April-June quarter and several sectors facing low demand, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced a fresh set of measures to boost exports and the housing sector.

The key measures include extending the scheme of Reimbursement of taxes and Duties for export promotion, fully automated electronic refund for Input Tax Credits (ITC) in GST, revised priority sector lending norms for exports and expanding the scope of Export Credit Insurance Scheme (ECIS). An inter-ministerial working group has also been formed to monitor export finance.

Accordingly, the Scheme for Remission of duties or Taxes on Export Product (RoDTEP) was announced which will replace Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) for textiles. In effect, RoDTEP will more than adequately incentivise exporters than existing schemes put together.

Revenue foregone on this account is projected at up to Rs 50,000 crore.

Existing dispensation in textiles of MEIS plus old ROSL scheme will continue up to December 12, 2019. Textile and all other sectors which currently enjoy incentives upto 2 per cent over MEIS will transit into RoDTEP from January 1, 2020.

Sitharaman also announced to reduce turnaround time for exports by leveraging technology and benchmarking it to Boston and Shanghai ports.

She said that priority sector lending norms for exports is being examined by the RBI and the guidelines will come out soon. Further, government will provide Rs 1,700 crore for export guarantees and to cut credit cost for the exporters.

The minister came out with several measures to prop up country's housing sector which is considered one of the main job creators. Now, there would be relaxed ECB norms for housing sector. Further, interest on house building advance would be lowered by linking it with 10-year government securities.

Sitharaman said that there would be special window for affordable and middle-income housing. Under this, a special window to provide last-mile funding for housing projects which are non-NCLT, non-NPA cases to complete unfinished projects. For this, a fund of Rs 10,000 crore would be contributed by the government and "roughly the same size by outside investors."

The fresh set of measures to boost the economy has come in the wake of sinking business sentiment across the industry.

With most engines of growth stuttering, the Reserve Bank of India recently lowered its GDP forecast and pegged it at 6.9 per cent in 2019-20. Several rating agencies and research firms expect the growth to be in the range of 6.5-7 per cent.

Besides domestic consumption slowdown, the external factors remain adverse threatening to pull down the economy. A lingering US-China trade war and fears of a global recession could make things worse.

Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article.

Comments

User

Kushal Kumar

7 years ago

The Finance Minister , Nirmala Sitharaman , announced on 20 September , 2019 , some incentives to corporate sector in India with an end to boost economic growth or at least , check the economic slowdown. The incentives announced are by way of substantial tax cuts which are required to be read with earlier measures within a month. One suggestion seems to emerge is that as on 20 September 2019 , the Govt would have been conscious to major worrisome concern in economy sector otherwise , the substantial measure would not have come in quick succession. In this context , readers may be referred to this Vedic astrology writerâ€™s predictive alerts of last year 2018 on 7 October in article - â€œ The year 2019 astrologically for Indiaâ€ - published at theindiapost.com. The alert relating to economy picture for the year 2019 in the said article has been confirmed meaningful by the facts emerging on the ground. The economic and financial aspect of India , among others , was indicated in another predictive article of this Vedic astrology writer - â€œ World trends in April to August 2019â€ - brought to public domain widely in March and subsequently on 5 April 2019. The alert had said that period of four months and a half months from mid- April to August 2019 looked to be one of major worrisome concern calling for more care and appropriate strategy in â€œ financial and economic sectorâ€ in India also. A review of these predictive alerts in month of May had suggested that the major worrisome concern in economy may reach out to mid- October while period from about 7 August to 9 October in 2019 looked to be particular. And within that , 20 September to 9 October looked to be more particular , the alert had said.