Mumbai: The government has called a halt to all export incentive schemes, except for the textile sector which was facing a tough market, as the rupee plunged to a 2-year low near 47 against the dollar.

The unprecedented fall in the value of the rupee has brought windfall gains for exporters, raising their incomes by as much as 14 to 15 per cent. The government, however, may keep the incentives for the textile sector, which is still facing tough global market.

''Export incentives for all sectors, except textiles, will lapse by the end of this month,'' commerce secretary G K Pillai said.

The government had extended sops of a total value of around Rs8,000 crore in the form of higher duty refunds, service tax pay-back and discounted interest rates last year when the rupee had appreciated to a level of 39 to a dollar wiping off exporters' profits.

The rupee has been losing its strength since the start of the current fiscal, bringing gains to the exporters. The rupee's fall accelerated on Tuesday shaving off 90 paise in its dollar value in one day amidst concerns of asset outflows from the equity markets.

The commerce ministry, however, proposed to retain the incentives for the textile exports, which was expected to be lower this fiscal than last year's level of $21.46 billion. Incentives for the textile sector is likely to double to Rs600 crore this year, Pillai said.

Meanwhile, the government proposes to ease overseas borrowing rules despite the global market turbulence as it sees no payment-related problems for equity investors in the near term, a finance ministry official said.

While foreign institutional investors have been selling equities, there had been some buying of government securities and corporate debt, the official pointed out.

The RBI and the finance ministry is expected to decide on the issue sometime later.