Giving sleepless nights to the exporters, India’s merchandise exports fell steeply by 24.3 per cent in September, the most in past 10 months, from a year earlier to USD 21.8 billion.
The exporters have been urging the government to intervene and take measures to boost export from the country. They have been urging the government for immediate reintroduction of interest subvention scheme, expansion of Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) benefits and single window clearance to reduce transaction costs.
Exports during September, 2015 were valued at USD 21844.98 million (Rs. 144652.67 crore) which was 24.33 per cent lower in Dollar terms (17.67 per cent lower in Rupee terms) than the level of USD 28867.71 million (Rs.175703.03crore) during September, 2014, according to the official data.
Cumulative value of exports for the period April-September 2015-16 was USD 132939.45 million (Rs. 853586.59 crore) as against USD 161397.35 million (Rs. 971716.43 crore) registering a negative growth of 17.63 per cent in Dollar terms and 12.16 per cent in Rupee terms over the same period last year, the data added.
Meanwhile, a sharper fall in imports helped lower the trade deficit. Gold and Oil imports showed major declines by 46 per cent and 54.5 per cent respectively.
The value of total imports plunged 25.42 per cent, the steepest in more than a year, to USD 32.32 billion.
That left a trade deficit of USD10.47 billion, compared with USD12.47 billion in August and USD 14.47 billion in the year-earlier month.
Also, the trade balance in Services (i.e. net export of Services) for August, 2015 was estimated at USD 5807 Million, according to an RBI release.
