Ministry notifies new sops for exporters

NEW DELHI: The Commerce Ministry on Wednesday enforced changes in various incentive schemes for exporters in line with the Rs 500-crore sops announced yesterday.

As part of the package to exporters, who saw tough times since October 2008, fiscal incentives like duty-free entitlements would be provided to over 2,000 products including auto components, electronics, plastics, machinery and chemicals, and also for exporting goods to Japan and China.

The incentives would come in force retrospectively from January 1.

The extra outgo for the current fiscal would be borne by the Commerce and Industry Ministry from its internal budget.

After remaining in the negative territory for past 13 months, exports turned positive in November and December following demand recovery in some of the major economies.

The government has been helping the export sector through different schemes since December 2008 including interest subsidy.