FIEO Felicitates Exporters of Northern India

NEW DELHI : In order to encourage the exporters and have an intrinsic growth FIEO instituted the Regional Awards which is given at the state level to exporters who have excelled in their respective fields and states. The states of Northern India play a significant role in India’s Total exports and FIEO felicitated the top performers in various categories from this region at the Northern Region Export Excellence Awards on November 13, 2021 at Jalandhar. The Awards were given by Shri Som Parkash, Hon’ble Minister of State for Commerce & Industry; Shri Suvidh Shah, Jt DGFT; Shri Khalid Khan, Vice President, Shri S C Ralhan, Past President and Shri Ashwani Kumar, Regional Chairman (Northern Region), FIEO.

Shri Khalid Khan, Vice President FIEO in his address congratulated all the Award winners and mentioned that by their excellent performances they have become role models for the entire exporting fraternity. Indian exports have done exceptionally well in the first 7 months of the current fiscal touching a new high of US$ 233 billion. Such a performance is all the more remarkable as it has come at a time when many States had local lockdown and huge challenges were witnessed in logistics. This has all been possible with the professional approach of exporters and support the Government has extended from time to time to the exporting community. Going by the current trend, we are confident to achieve the target of USD 400 billion with exemplary performers amongst us.

Shri Ashwani Kumar, Regional Chairman (Northern Region), FIEO in his welcome address thanked Shri Som Parkash, Hon’ble Commerce & Minister. He informed that the Export Excellence Award is awarded to member exporters for achieving outstanding performance in export of goods and services and to organizations helping exporters in achieving higher growth in all the Northern region states, such as Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, J&K, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. He said that we are on our course to achieve the target of US$ 400 Billion in goods exports this fiscal and now working for reaching the milestone of US$ 1 Trillion merchandise exports by 2026-27.

Shri Som Parkash, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry said that India has been able to maintain momentum even in the midst of a stressed up global macro environment. India’s GDP growth rate in 2021 is projected at 12.55%. India is in 5th position out of 193 economies. India is among six economies that will experience a double-digit growth rate in 2021. India’s merchandise exports in October 2021 were USD 35.47 billion, an increase of 42.33% over USD 24.92 billion in October 2020 and an increase of 35.21% over USD 26.23 billion in October 2019. India’s merchandise exports in April-October 2021 were USD 232.58 billion, an increase of 54.51% over USD 150.53 billion in April-October 2020 and an increase of 25.45% over USD 185.4 billion in April-October 2019. Government is continuously engaged in strengthening Indian industry through “ease of doing business” for improving the business environment and attracting foreign investments. He informed about the recently launched PM Gati Shakti- National Master Plan for Multi-modal connectivity which is a digital platform to bring 16 ministries together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure projects. He further informed that the Multi-modal Connectivity will provide integrated and seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services for one mode of transport to another. It will facilitate the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and also reduce travel time for people. This will further reduce the logistics cost of Indian products and make them more competitive.

Shri S C Ralhan, Past President, FIEO raised the issue of GST and highlighted the blockage of working capital due to the amendment in the GST law. Talking about bank loans he said that banks are scared of giving loans to exporters and about decline in loans /funds to the exporters. He said that this was the best time for exports and said that if banks made funds available to the exporter, the exports that were at USD291 billion at present would surpass the target of USD 400 billion.