Ludhiana exporters meet DGFT & senior officials

LUDHIANA: Federation of Export Organisations (FIEO) organized an Exporters Interaction with Santosh Kumar Sarangi, IAS, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, and Government of India at Ludhiana.
During the interaction in which senior officials were also present, prominent businessmen gave inputs about the proposed Export Import Policy and also shared the problems being faced by them.
While addressing the gathering Santosh Kumar Sarangi said, “It is very appreciable that the Indian exporters have achieved overall export targets in the current year, which is more than 400 billion USD. The target of 1000 billion USD is also expected to be achieved during the next few couple of years. Steps taken by various government departments or agencies during the times of Covid- 19 Pandemic, were aimed to ensure smooth functioning of exports. India being the one of the fastest growing economy and this year also the growth rate is expected around 7.5 percent”
Vikas Kumar, Principal Commissioner, CGST Ludhiana during his address shared his views and interacted with the participating exporters on various Taxation related issues faced by exporters from the region.
Vrindaba Gohil, IRS, Commissioner of Customs Ludhiana shared her views on “How the timelines in clearances are now speeded up the whole process and how quickly the refunds are processed by the Customs Department, providing them with timely liquidity to execute further orders”.
During his address, Dr. A Sakthivel, President, FIEO said that “The exports play a critical role in the economic growth of any country. Ludhiana is a major industrial centre of Northern India, However, recent statistics shows that, the exports from Punjab are slowing down, while, the India’s overall exports grew by 28 percent in during the April to July 2022 period, the exports from Punjab only grew by 10 percent. Severe shortage of skilled workers, lack of knowledge about foreign markets etc, may be one of the few key reasons contributing in the slowing down of exports and it is important to address such issues with priority”
While addressing the participating delegates, SC Ralhan, Past President, FIEO said that, ”To improve and increase the contribution toward state’s exports, the MSME’s in Punjab need to be more focused, innovative, research oriented and actively exploring new markets for their product with improved services and timely delivery, the State Government should also support MSME’s by offering all possible support, conducive environment for growth and export oriented state level policies or schemes, encouraging Punjab’s MSME to do well”.
Dr Ajay Sahai, DG & CEO, FIEO, Harish Dua executive committee member of Apparel Exporters Promotion Council and several prominent businessmen representing various prominent export houses were present on this occasion.