by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
Suresh Prabhu
New Delhi : The Union Commerce Ministry has decided to make the country’s districts as the operative unit as part of a revamped strategy for boosting exports that would incentivise the states, and has asked them to appoint nodal officers at district level towards this end, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Monday.
Briefing reporters here following a meeting of the Council for Trade Development and Promotion (CTDP), including states’ representatives, he said that with states being well aware of their responsibility in this area, it had been decided that all of them should have their individual export policies.
“We have decided to make the district as the unit for exports, rather than the state. We are in the process of preparing a strategy whereby 40 per cent of our GDP should come from global trade and half of that from exports,” he said.
“India needs to incentivise states to promote exports. We have asked the states to appoint at least one nodal officer at the district level, which is the closest to the local market,” the Minister said, elaborating that although the Centre is responsible for the country’s foreign trade, the actual sourcing is done at the state and local levels.
Noting that it had been decided that all states should have an export policy, Prabhu said 14 states, including Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura and Manipur had already prepared policies, while Goa, Delhi and Sikkim are about to start preparing theirs.
“The idea of incentivising states has just been mooted, we have not worked out any package. States are feeling responsibility because they will only be benefiting from increased exports,” he said.
Prabhu also said that with the high logistics costs in India affecting export competitiveness, the his ministry is also looking at the sector being handled by a separate ministry.
“We’re working at making logistics a separate subject that could be handled independently by a ministry,” he said.
He also released two booklets on the occasion that have been prepared by the Department of Commerce. One is an analysis of state exports, while the other is a report on the logistics situation across states.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Investing, Markets, News, Politics
Suresh Prabhu
New Delhi : India needs massive investments to boost GDP growth that is hovering around 6 per cent in recent quarters, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Thursday.
His comments come at a time when domestic private investments in the country have fallen to record lows.
Addressing the 50th edition of the Skoch Summit here, the Minister said that private enterprises must be encouraged to ensure efficient investments in areas critical for the country’s development.
“India needs investments on a massive scale, because more the investments, more the growth,” Prabhu said.
He said that investments must be efficient, as poorly conceived and inefficient investments would not yield the desired results.
“We must use capital in the most efficient manner so that capital-output ratio is good. We need entrepreneurs who use capital in an efficient manner and thus boost growth,” the Minister added.
Reversing five successive quarters of decline, India’s Gross Domestic Product in the second (July-September) quarter of the current fiscal grew at 6.3 per cent, which was higher than the 5.7 per cent growth registered in the previous quarter.
According to experts, the fundamental factor responsible for this situation is the decline in private investments in recent years, both corporate and households, accompanied by the burgeoning non-performing assets, or bad loans, of Indian government banks.
There has been a sharp fall in investment with the gross fixed capital formation rate falling steadily to touch 29.3 per cent in 2015-16 and 27.1 per cent in 2016-17.
Investments by the private sector during 2016-17 grew at 5.8 per cent, recording the slowest growth rate since 1992. The gross domestic savings rate fell from 34.6 per cent of the GDP in 2011-12 to 32.2 per cent in 2015-16.
The top 1,000 non-financial companies made fresh investments of Rs 2.07 lakh crore in 2016-17, which is lower than the Rs 2.9 lakh crore in 2016-17, and all-time high of Rs 5.7 lakh crore in 2013-14.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
Nitin Gadkari
New Delhi : The Congress on Friday targetted union cabinet Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu, accusing them of conflict of interest for allegedly being part of the national executive committee of a company ‘Indian Federation of Green Energy’ (IFGE), owned by Gadkari’s personal secretary Vaibhav Dange.
The party asked how Union Minister Gadkari had permitted the Shipping Ministry as well as PSUs to participate in and financially contribute to a company partly owned by his personal secretary Dange.
The opposition party also raised the point of conflict of interest vis-a-vis Gadkari.
According to reports, Dange, who comes from RSS cadre, floated the ‘Indian Federation of Green Energy’ (IFGE) on October 9, 2014, and owns a 50 per cent stake in it.
The party also questioned how a company, which started in October 2014 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh only and zero cash as also zero corpus, has built up a corpus of Rs 1.33 crore.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh asked: “The IFGE organises conclaves and programmes in tandem with PSUs and ministries under Gadkari’s control and receives financial contributions. The firm also receives contributions from private individuals, corporate entities sponsoring these events and those who deal directly with ministries under Gadkari.
“This becomes even more serious as Dange deals directly with all ministries and public sector undertakings related issues as also private entities in his capacity as private secretary to the Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister.”
Ramesh said: “Even today (November 24) IFGE is organizing a conference on ‘Ethanol As a Transport Fuel’ in partnership with Centre Institute of Road Transport under Ministry of Transport at Pune.
“Even in 2015-16, similar conferences were organized in league with Ministry of Transport. Besides Gadkari’s ministry, IFGE organizes similar conclaves, conferences and summits in partnership with other ministries and receives financial contributions,” he added.
“Isn’t the conflict of interest of Gadkari writ large on the whole matter?” Ramesh asked.
“Has Dange not violated the Central Civil Service Conduct Rules, which prohibit a public servant from accepting contributions and associating with raising of any funds or collections or cash?” he added.
Ramesh said: “Conflict of interest and diversion of public funds to private entity has become an everyday affair under the Modi government.
“No wonder that a company, which started in October 2014 with a capital of Rs 1 lakh only and zero cash as also zero corpus, has built up a corpus of Rs 1.33 crore (Rs 73 lakh in 2014-15 and Rs 60 lakh in 2015-16). This company also has cash equivalent of Rs 1.54 crore.
“That IFGE’s office is at Rohit House on Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi as per its corporate filing. This office is owned by another member of the national executive of IFGE Ravi Boratkar. Incidentally, Boratkar is also a director of ‘Purti Power and Sugar Limited’ owned by Gadkari’s family,” he added.
The party asked if both Gadkari and Prabhu have violated the code of conduct for union ministers.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu
New Delhi : Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu will leave on Wednesday on a three-day visit to the US to meet with his American counterpart Wilbur Ross for the first trade and commerce talks between India and the US administration led by President Donald Trump.
“Tonight, I’m going to the US to meet my counterpart Commerce Secretary as well as Trade Representative of US. This is the first time India is going to have a structured interaction on Commerce and related issues with the Trump administration,” Prabhu told reporters here at the launch of the website of the Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM).
“Therefore, it is a very important meeting in which we will be discussing issues from their side as well as our side. I will also be meeting a lot of business leaders there from India and the US,” he said.
During his visit between October 25-28, Prabhu will also meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Issues like visa, greater market access for goods, and intellectual property rights are expected to figure in the trade policy forum meeting between India and the US on October 25 in Washington.
Prabhu said that on the second leg of the visit, he will visit Cuba, from October 28-31, to hold discussions on boosting bilateral trade.
“I am going to meet quite a few ministers. We have invited them in Havana for meeting them on how can we promote bilateral trade with them,” he said.
The Minister also said the government is trying to develop an exclusive portal for startups and working to create a single website for all exports and international trade activities.
“I have already told DGFT (Director General Foreign Trade) Aand they have started working on it. A lot of agencies have to be taken on board, particularly with Customs, because most formalities of import and export are with Customs,” he said.
“Soon we want to organise a round-table on startups. Soon, you will hear good news on ease of doing business,” he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
Suresh Prabhu
New Delhi : Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for addressing exporters’ issues in the GST Council meeting, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday said his ministry would make maximum effort on promoting exports.
“Thx @narendramodi ji @arunjaitley for addressing the exporters issues in #GSTCouncil. We shall together work on promoting exports,” Prabhu said in a tweet following the 22nd meeting here of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council.
In a relief to exporters, the government on Friday announced that it would immediately refund exporters for the month of July and August through cheques from October 10 and October 18, respectively.
Following the day-long meeting of the GST Council, Jaitley told reporters that this would be an interim relief, and as a long term measure e-wallets will be created for all exporters by April 1, 2018, to carry forward the refund process.
“We are working in close coordination with @FinMinIndia to address GST related issues of exporters,” Prabhu had said earlier in a separate tweet.
Earlier on Friday, Prabhu met with stakeholders, including leading exporters, Export Promotion Councils, associations and industry chamber representatives.
“Had extensive discussions with stakeholders on strategies to boost exports.We will work together to ensure exports led growth,” he had tweeted after the meeting.
“We must align our standards with global standards. Benchmarking will stimulate exports,ensure India’s integration with global value chain,” he said in another tweet.
“We must enhance competencies, tap into the global value chain which will provide fillip to our efforts to enhance exports.”
According to an official release here, the Minister asked the export promotion councils and industry associations to prepare a vision statement for their product group.
“He also stressed on the importance of export led growth and assured stakeholders of working together to boost exports,” a Commerce Ministry statement here said.
—IANS
