India’s merchandise exports during January-June 2022 stood at $235.7 billion, compared to $185.9 billion in the same period a year earlier. India’s merchandise imports during January-June 2022 stood at $361.1 billion, compared to $258.6 billion in the same period a year earlier. Total merchandise exports stood at $421.9 billion in 2021–22 against an export target of $400 billion, achieving 105.4% of the export target.
Details of sectoral exports during January to June 2021 and January to June 2022 are given in the Annexure. Apart from a few sectors, all major sectors show a positive trend with an overall growth rate of 26.7%. The government has taken the following corrective measures to increase exports:
i. Foreign trade policy (2015-20) extended by one year, i.e. until 30.9.2022.
ii. Assistance provided through several export promotion programs namely the Trade Infrastructure for Exports (TIES) program and the Market Access Initiatives (MAI) program.
iii. From 01/01/2021, the duty and tax exemption regime for exported products (RoDTEP) is in place. From 07/03/2019, the State and Central Levy and Tax Rebate (RoSCTL) program has been introduced to support the export of work-oriented textiles.
iv. A common digital platform for certificates of origin has been launched to facilitate trade and increase the use of free trade agreements (FTAs) by exporters.
v. Districts as Export Hubs was initiated by identifying products with export potential in each district, addressing bottlenecks in exporting those products and supporting local exporters/manufacturers to generate employment in the district.
vi. The role of Indian missions abroad in promoting India’s trade, tourism, technology and investment objectives has been strengthened.
vii. The package announced in view of the COVID pandemic to support the domestic industry through various measures to help the banking and financial sector, especially for small and medium enterprises, which form the major share of exports.
This information was provided by the Minister of State at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Smt. Anupriya Patel, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.
