Govt plans sops for exporters

Close on the heels of announcing sops for special economic zones, the government on Friday assured exporters that it will take more steps to enable them to compete globally.

"You have to compete with exporters who have liberal labour and fiscal regimes. You can compete only if the playing field was same," Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley said, addressing exporters, at Capexil's export awards function in New Delhi.

Jaitley welcomed the labour ministry's decision, taken on Thursday, to exempt units in special economic zones from statutory dues like employees provident fund and employees state insurance contribution, saying such steps will make exporters more competitive.

Observing that exporters had put up a spectacular performance by attaining double digit growth despite the hardening of rupee against dollar, he said the government was keeping a close watch on the trends.

"Hardening of rupee against dollar has adversely impacted your competitiveness globally. The government is closely watching the situation."

Jaitely said exports played a very important role in country's economy and were responsible for creation of jobs, infrastructure, economic activity and contribution to revenue.