Policymakers plan to make MSMEs the plank on which the country will ride through global economic speed breakers and achieve the ambitious export target of $900 billion by 2020. However, the problem is that MSMEs largely remain unappreciated and unattended. While there are many trade facilitation schemes in FTP for big players, almost none on the lines are available to MSMEs. Can’t we have a few extended to MSMEs? How about a separate ‘Status Holder’ categorisation for MSMEs?
That India’s exports are in doldrums is news to nobody. Fact is exports fell from $314.40 billion in FY2014 to $310.34 billion in FY2015 and then slumped to $262.29 billion in FY2016. Fact also is that India’s exports fell below the $300 billion mark in FY2016 for the first time since FY2011. Many had banked on the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-2020 to boost exports, with government targeting $900 billion in exports by 2020. And not to say, hence FTP 2015-2020 has many new provisions and tweaks, ostensibly to facilitate foreign trade and improve country’s export performance.
THE STATUS HOLDERS
One such tweak was a change in criteria for recognition as Status Holder (exports in the current and previous three financial years to be considered as against the earlier criteria of current and previous two financial years to recognise an exporter as Status Holder). As per FTP 2015-2020, “Status Holders are business leaders who have excelled in international trade and have successfully contributed to country’s foreign trade”. Well, the criteria was tweaked to provide special and differential treatment to those who really deserved it. However, in the talk of recognising those that are contributing big time to country’s foreign trade and are earning the nation valuable foreign exchange, the one segment that went unheeded though was the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) segment, a segment that accounts for about 50% of the country’s total exports and has the potential to increase India’s exports manifold.
NO STATUS FOR MSME
This story is from the November 2016 edition of The Dollar Business.
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This story is from the November 2016 edition of The Dollar Business.
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