Growth of Exports Will Drive the 1 Trillion Dollar Target: Piyush Goyal

There is a need to accelerate export growth to reach the export target of US 1 trillion in the next 5 years and the Report of the High-Level Advisory Group shows the way in which this goal can be achieved, said Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.

Speaking at a Session to Release of the High-Level Advisory Group Report, the Minister stated that there was a need to look at the ways addressing the high cost of capital and the high taxation levels in the Indian Economy.

He noted that the Government had already acted upon the latter based on the Group’s interim report and the Finance Ministry had reduced the corporate tax rates.

The Minister also highlighted the need to diversify India’s service exports so that we were not always dependent on IT / BPO exports. In addition, he stated that the fear of FTA’s needs to go and India needs to negotiate FTAs as a win-win situation for both sides.

He stated that there was also a need to promote manufacturing in the country and develop economies of scale.

Surjit Bhalla, Executive Director – Designate for India to IMF & Chairman, HLAG stated that India had missed the path to accelerate exports growth in the past and the recommendations of the report were designed to ensure that we did not miss this opportunity again.

He mentioned that apart from the high cost of capital and the high taxation rates, there was a need to open up the agriculture sector and encouraged states to implement the Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Act, 2017.

He also stated that India’s strength lay in the Financial Sector and there was a tremendous opportunity to increase our exports of financial services.

Sudhanshu Pandey, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, India pointed out that for the past 7-8 years, India’s trade had been stagnating at the USD 300 billion level and there was a need to give this a boost.

The recommendations of the High-Level Advisory Group were designed to provide just such a boost, he added.

Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII stated that there is a need to diversify services exports from the country and the 12 Champion Sectors that were shortlisted by the Government of India could act as a starting point for the same