Government must Take Steps to Cool Off Raw Material Prices, says EEPC Chairman

Engineering goods exports continued the growth momentum and rose 37% in November to US$ 8.07 billion but emergence of Omicron has certainly posed some downside risks to the strong uptrend going forward, said EEPC India Chairman Mr Mahesh Desai.

"Given that the Budget-making process for FY23 has begun, the government could very well take necessary steps to shield the exports sector from adverse effects of the new Corona virus variant of concern on trade and economy," said Mr Desai.

"But the immediate need of the hour is containing the soaring prices of raw materials," he added.

Mr Desai said that the increase in raw material prices has further put pressure on the margin leaving very little scope for making further investment by a large number of MSMEs which dominate the engineering goods sector.

He said that the sector has been facing a double whammy of high logistics costs triggered by container shortage and almost uncontrollable prices of key raw inputs such as steel, copper and aluminum.

"Both the issues warrant urgent attention," Mr Desai said.