The commerce and industry ministry will unveil a new scheme in the annual supplement to the foreign trade policy to boost exports of select products to select markets.
Officials said the scheme, which might be called "Product Competitiveness Scheme", would be a replacement to the Target Plus Scheme that is being discontinued from April 1, 2006.
"The scheme is likely to provide credit incentive up to 2.5 per cent or 3 per cent of the FOB (freight on board) value of exports for undertaking exports of select products like marine products, sports goods, toys and processed food items," an official said.
Officials said trade with countries to which India has less than $200 million of exports would also be encouraged by providing exporters special incentives to export all products to such markets.
The scope of the Vishesh Krishi Upaj Yojana is also being expanded to include rural and agro based industries like processed and jute products.
"These new items will be included in the existing scheme rather than being made into a new scheme," an official said.
The officials said the annual supplement would also tighten norms of some schemes like the deemed exports scheme following representations received from other departments like revenue.
A proposal to introduce a zero duty Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme has, however, not found favour with the other ministries. "This proposal of the Board of Trade has been dropped as it was pointed out that since the peak customs duty is 12.5 per cent, the concessional import duty of 5 per cent should be retained under the scheme to protect against a surge in imports," an official said.Do you want to discuss stock tips? Do you know a hot one? Join the Stock Market Investments Discussion Group
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