There has been a fall in exports to major engineering export markets of the country as per the details available for April-January 2012-13. The details of the regions alongwith engineering exports, reflecting such fall are given below; the fall in engineering exports has been largely on account of the global recession that has affected global demand.

(Values in million US$)

 Initiatives for increasing the competitiveness of Indian industry in exports is a constant process. Some of the recent initiatives taken by the Government for enhancing exports of the engineering sector are the following:

Expansion of the Interest Subvention Scheme to include 134 engineering tariff lines;

Extension of Interest Subvention Scheme till March 31, 2014;

Expansion of Focus Market Scheme to include a large number of countries;

Expansion of both Focus Product Scheme and the Market Linked Focus Product Scheme to promote various engineering tariff lines;

Introduction of new 2% Incremental Export Scheme for the 4th Quarter 2012-2013 for certain markets in Asia, USA and EU;

Introduction of 2% Pilot Scheme of Interest Subvention for Project Exports through EXIM Bank for countries of SAARC region, Africa and Myanmar.

This information was given by the Minister of State of Commerce & Industry, Dr. D. Purandeswari in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

DS/RK

(Release ID :93099)

Export competitiveness measures expanded to counterfalling external demand and support engineering exports through targeted subsidy schemes. A decline in engineering exports for April-January 2012-13 to key regions-most sharply to ASEAN+2 and with reductions to the EU, Rest of Europe, North America, North East Asia and South Asia-is attributed to weakened global demand. In response, the Government expanded and extended the Interest Subvention Scheme, broadened the Focus Market and Focus Product schemes, introduced a 2% Incremental Export Scheme for Q4 2012-13 for select markets, and launched a 2% pilot interest subvention for project exports via EXIM Bank for SAARC, Africa and Myanmar.