Indian exporters' credit cost higher than that of competitors

New DELHI: Sanjay Budhia, Chairman, CII National Committee on EXIM and Managing Director, Patton Group, at the Board of Trade meeting on Friday in Delhi, in his opening statement acknowledged that with government's support Indian exports is positively expected to reach its highest ever mark of $340-345 billion in 2018-19.

Taking his point forward, he further emphasized that it is critical to address issues related to trade financing, trade incentives and logistics, to help Indian exporters become globally competitive. Citing examples of other major exporting countries, he mentioned that "compared to China and Korea, where cost of credit is around 3.7-4 per cent, Indian exporters have to pay around 6-7 per cent tax on the credit".

He proposed that interest subvention should be extended across the board to all exporters and not only MSMEs and tax rate should be in the range of 4-5 per cent.