No negative effect of DeMo on exports, says minister

Ravi S.Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

The government today underlined that demonetisation had no negative impact on exports. It attributed the decline since 2013 to global meltdown of economy.

Responding to a query of Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in the Lok Sabha on the impact of demonetisation, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the decline in exports had been occurring for the past around 14 months, even before the demonetisation.

The small and medium industries are rather keeping up with the pace of exports in the wake of demonetisation.

The minister said the exports, particularly of merchandise goods, declined in 2014-15, 2015-16 and so on. But it has started picking up.

“It is true that there was decline in exports. However, recovery is now constant and steady. This is because of the global depression.”

“In terms of demand for exports from the major export destinations, such as European Union countries and China, our exports have come down particularly of merchandise goods,” she said.

She said Balance of Trade, however, has been maintained on the back of good performance by our services sector as opposed to merchandise sectors.

She assured that the merchandise sector has now started improving.

With regard to steps taken by the government to boost exports, she cited, among others, the scheme of interest subvention and Merchandise Goods Export Promotion.