Sharma to meet Mukherjee to decide on stimulus for exports

Commerce minister Anand Sharma is to meet finance minister Pranab Mukherjee later this week to take a decision on stimulus packages for exporters in the next fiscal, commerce secretary Rahul Khullar said yesterday.

Khullar said at a function organised by industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) that the finance and commerce ministers were scheduled to meet later this week to decide on the extension and withdrawal of stimulus packages for exporters for fiscal 2010-11.

Khullar said that incentives were needed for sectors that were still under stress however, for those areas that had seen a recovery it could be withdrawn, as it was no longer needed.

Earlier in the day, union minister of state for commerce and industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said in Kolkata that his ministry had urged the finance ministry to continue the export stimulus for some more time until the export sector recovered completely.

Sharma had said last month, that his ministry would offer Rs450-500 crore as incentives to exporters till end of this fiscal to push exports of 2,000 products.

India's exports were up 9 per cent to Rs73,000 crore in December, from Rs.66,000 crore in November, when exports were up 18.2 per cent after declining for 13 consecutive months.