India is to achieve record ever 400 billion dollars exports in the current year: Piyush Goyal in RS

New Delhi [India], February 4 : Minister of Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal on Friday announced in the Rajya Sabha that "India has already crossed 334 billion dollars of exports, which is higher than any full year ever in the past, and, it is on track to achieve 400 billion dollars exports in the current year".
Replying to NCP leader Fauzia Khan's query during Question Hour, Goyal complimented all the exporters and industry participants, including Rajasthan, who contributed in a big way to increase the country's export.
The Minister later urged all the states to support economic activity through exports, saying "truly, export promotion is the way by which we will be able to get not only more jobs in the system but also more economic activity".
"I think, it is the collective effort of the Centre and the states and we are finding very good traction across the country while working together on this," said the Minister.
Noting that there has been a decline in the Budget on export promotion schemes despite the long-standing demand to lessen trade deficit, Fauzia Khan questioned the Minister "as to how does the government plan to solve this problem with particular reference to Rajasthan industry".
To the query, Goyal said "based on that, exports have also been growing. While the honorable Member of Parliament feels that we have reduced our export subsidies."
"The reality is that this year, India is going to see a record performance in exports. This year, we have already crossed 334 billion dollars of exports, which is higher than any full year ever in the past, and, we are well on track to achieve 400 billion dollars exports in the current year," said the Minister.
Appreciating Khan's question, Goyal said: "I have been on record on more than one occasion to say that no country in the world can survive beyond a point of time only on clutches when it comes to export promotion."
"India over a period of time has been promoting exports through subsidies but that has not really given us the desired result or given us the huge impetus that one would have expected. In fact, the reality is that every nation has certain products or certain services which are its strength area. Every theory in the world says that one should focus only on industries where you should have competitive or comparative strengths."
The Minister said, "those should be the products on which we focus our exports" and that India has moved more into an inter-connected world where such subsidies are not even permitted under the WTO.
"We have had instances of India also being taken before the WTO on export subsidies. Therefore, our approach is that we reimburse the taxes or cesses or duties that are loaded on the products by the states," said the Minister.
As far as the Central Government is concerned, Goyal said usually, most products are under the GST, and, so, it automatically gets refunded when you export the product but should there be any other taxes which is levied on any export product or which is not movable or reversible in the form of a refund, we are giving back to the exporters in the form of RODTEP scheme, which is for the remission of duties, taxes, levies, and cesses.
"We have found very good acceptance of the scheme across the country," added the Minister.