India Launches Rs 2,250 Crore Export Promotion Mission

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) The government on Saturday announced setting up of an Export Promotion Mission with an outlay of Rs 2,250 crore to promote the country's outbound shipments.

Three ministries - commerce, MSME, and finance - will work on rolling out of this mission.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that through the mission, the government will facilitate exporters to get easy access to credit, cross-border factoring support, and support to MSMEs to tackle non-tariff measures in overseas markets.

"We will set up an Export Promotion Mission, with sectoral and ministerial targets, driven jointly by the Ministries of Commerce, MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises), and Finance," she said.

She also said a digital public infrastructure, 'BharatTradeNet' (BTN) for international trade will be set up as a unified platform for trade documentation and financing solutions.

"This will complement the Unified Logistics Interface Platform. The BTN will be aligned with international practices," she said.

It will be new Digital Public Infrastructure to be a part of the India Stack, which currently include products such as UPI, Aadhaar, ONDC, and DigiLocker.

According to the ministry, it will be designed to digitise, streamline, and modernise India's international trade ecosystem.

It aims to eliminate paper-based processes, improve trade finance access, and enhance regulatory compliance by integrating key stakeholders such as Customs, DGFT, GSTN, banks, and exporters into a unified digital platform.

To boost MSME exports, the Budget also announced revision of MSME classification criteria.

The ministry said exporter MSMEs can avail of increased credit benefits from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore, generating additional credit of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the next five years.

"Well-run exporter MSMEs will receive increased term loans from Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore," it said, adding that the announcement of credit cards for micro enterprises will benefit e-commerce exporters.

Further to promote exports from the marine sector, the government announced reduction in customs duty on frozen fish paste (Surimi) from 30 per cent to 5 per cent to support export manufacturing.

Commenting on the measures, Rumki Majumdar, Economist, Deloitte India, said that exports have been a concern, but the sector remains agile.

"The services industry has been a key driver of growth, while India's exports, despite global challenges, have expanded into new and diverse markets," she said.


Think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) Founder Ajay Srivastava said that recognizing the need to support export-oriented industries, the Budget has
introduced several facilitative measures.

For the handicrafts sector, the time frame for exports of handicrafts manufactured from duty free inputs has been extended from six months to one year, with an additional three-month extension possible, he said adding nine new items have been added to the duty-free input list to assist artisans.

Srivastava also said that the mission seeks to simplify and improve access to credit, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often struggle with financing.

"A key question is whether the new provisons will cover only preshipment and
post-shipment credit, which are short-term working capital loans, or it will
extend credit for business expansion and machinery purchases," he said adding a major concern is that the Interest Equalization Scheme, which reduces borrowing costs for exporters, has not been extended.

The announcement of an additional Rs 10,000 crore in the Fund of Funds for Startups scheme is set to significantly boost the growth of startups and emerging entrepreneurs, Pawan Gupta, CTO of SkillsCapital said.

This initiative will not only foster innovation-driven expansion and create new job opportunities but will also support the development of a globally competitive workforce, positioning India as the Skills Capital of the World, Gupta said.

Exports contracted for the second month in a row by about one per cent year-on-year to USD 38.01 billion due to global uncertainties, while imports rose by about 5 per cent to USD 59.95 billion.

Cumulatively, during April-December this fiscal, exports recorded a growth of 1.6 per cent to USD 321.71 billion and imports by 5.15 per cent to USD 532.48 billion.

The trade deficit, the difference between imports and exports, during April-December widened to USD 210.77 billion from USD 189.74 billion during the same period previous fiscal. PTI RR