Will take strongest action against wheat exporters generating backdated Letter of Credits: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi [India], June 3 : Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday warned those wheat exporters who are generating backdated Letter of Credit (LC) or backdated applications saying that the government is investigating the matter and strongest action will be taken against them.
Goyal was addressing the media to mark the eighth anniversary of the Narendra Modi Government in the centre.
Goyal said, "We are investigating each one of those wheat exporters to verify and the strongest action will be taken on any exporter who has tried to create backdated Letter of Credits (LC) or backdated applications."
"I want to give this message very clearly. Friendly nations who have asked us for support, there is a committee which has been constituted inter-ministerial where officers from Agriculture, Food and Foreign Affairs Ministry are a part of that committee. Collectively based on the population of the country and their genuine requirements, particularly for our neighbouring and our friendly countries, that committee takes a decision and allows the export of wheat. Whichever foreign government will apply, the committee will examine it", Goyal said.
According to the Commerce Minister, there will be a record of all the decisions taken and we are, of course, insisting that any country which wants wheat from us should ask only for their local population and not allow it to be exported from there.
"Our concern was that trader's speculators holders should not get control of this valuable wheat and then charge exorbitant prices to the poor and vulnerable nations and cause distress to the people of the world. So we want to support the less developed countries and our friendly countries," he added.
India banned wheat exports last month as an intense heat wave hit output and domestic prices hit a record high. The country, however, has said it will still allow exports to countries that request supplies "to meet their food security needs".
Talking about edible oil, Goyal said, "Palm oil prices have seen four times increase worldwide and look at the price increase in India. A Group of Ministers under the chairmanship of Home Minister Amit Shah, a Committee of Secretaries and an inter-ministerial committee are monitoring the prices regularly. There is a three-tier system, which means regular monitoring of edible oil prices on a daily basis."
Capping the successful visit to the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting at Davos, Switzerland, Goyal said that India was the focus of the meeting.
"The world recognises India today as a reliable friend and reliable partner. India has arrived on the world stage, world looks at India as a friend. Today India is the world's fastest-growing economy," he said.
Goyal said that due to the Ukraine-Russia war, energy prices are very high today globally. Indian Government has cut the excise duty twice to give relief to the common man but some states are cheating the people. Some state has reduced the Value-added tax (VAT) very nominal, but some state like West Bengal, and Maharashtra has not reduced the VAT on Petrol-Diesel.
Highlighting the achievement Government e-Marketplace GeM portal Goyal said that the Cabinet has allowed cooperatives societies to register as buyers on the GeM portal.
Prime Minister has seen a vision of GeM four years back. India has launched the GeM portal in 2017-18 and in four years today GeM is the biggest e-Marketplace in the world. Today 50 lakh traders are registered on GeM.
GeM has conducted sales of Rs 1,06,000 crore in these four years. Today 1.31 lakh women entrepreneurs with the sale of Rs 10, 865 cr are registered on the portal.
GeM had helped 38,000 MSMEs to grow their business. When GeM was started in 2017-18, that year Rs 6,207 crore sale was done and now after four years, Rs 1,06,000 crore sale is done on the portal registering 17 times more growth.