THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
(SHRI JAIRAM RAMESH)
(a) Yes, Sir.
(b) The export of engineering goods during the last two financial years and the
current till the period April-September is as follows:
(in crores)
2004-05 2005-06 2006-07
69,181.67 84,943.73 59053.67
The export of Gem & Jewellery for the last two financial years and the current
year till the period April-October is as follows:
(in Million US $)
2004-05 2005-06 2006-07
13,761.77 15,546.58 9132.31
(c) & (d) Yes, Sir. According to the latest data on trade available for the
current year (April to December), the trade deficit was US $ 42 billion compared
with US $ 32 billion for the same period last year. The increase in trade deficit
during the current year is mainly on account of high price of crude oil and high
growth of import of capital goods and raw-materials/intermediate products required
to sustain the unprecedented growth in the Manufacturing Sector. The Government
is watchful of the situation but does not propose to artificially restrict imports
to contain trade deficit as this may have an adverse impact on inflation.
(e) No sector-wise target has been fixed for 2006-07.
(f) Policy measures are announced by the Government from time to time including
those contained in the Annual Supplement of the Foreign Trade Policy (2004-09).
These measures are aimed to augment and sustain the current rate of export growth
in line with India’s comparative advantage and the emerging situation in the domestic
and international market.
The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) and the Gem & Jewellery Export
Promotion Council (GJEPC), representative bodies of these sectors, are promoting their
products through advertisement, publicity and participation in international fairs,
organizing buyer-seller meets. The Government provides support to these EPCs for
their activities under Market Development Assistance (MDA) and Market Access Initiative
(MAI) Schemes of the Department of Commerce.
