Imports Fall 3.9%, Electronics up 21% to
$3.8bn, Pulses Double, Gold Triples
· Exports in Dec Fall again by 14.8%,
Textiles up 5%, Agri buoyant
S C Ralhan,
President, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said that the
decline of 14.75 percent as against the sharp decline of 24.43 percent during
the month of November, 2015. Shows improvement, on the other hand, December
exports of China have turned positive. Indian industry is becoming
uncompetitive due to high domestic taxes and state control on energy sector
prices.
Ralhan claims that commodities and crude oil prices have more than
40 percent bearing on India’s exports, this has further led to the continuous
decline in exports.
FIEO President said that talking about the top major
commodities traded, positive performance has been shown by half of the items
out of 30 product groups in December, 2015 as against 7 out of 30 product
groups in November, 2015.
Mr Ralhan urges the government for
the immediate reconsideration of inverted duty structure to give a boost to
Make in India, exemption of Service tax from exports, creation of Export
Development Fund (EDF) with a corpus of 0.5 percent to 1 percent of total
export value, exemption of Terminal Excise Duty (TED) on purchase of Capital
Goods, provision of fiscal incentive to MSMEs for the motivation of aggressive
export marketing and restoring benefits under SHIS to Status Holder exporters.
Besides issues like non-residents to be kept out of the ambit
of section 206AA and Merchant exporters to be given Interest Equalization
Benefits should also be looked into.
Besides Mr Ralhan reiterates that redressal of number of issues relating to infrastructure
bottlenecks and transaction cost specially immediate introduction of Integrated
Web Portal by CBEC for facilitating exports could provide much needed relief to
the export sector even during such a difficult global economic scenario.
Exports & Imports: (US $ Million)
|
(Provisional) |
||
|
|
December |
April-December |
|
Exports(including
re-exports) |
|
|
|
2014-15 |
26154.46 |
239928.91 |
|
2015-16 |
22297.48 |
196603.94 |
|
%Growth2015-16/
2014-15 |
-14.75 |
-18.06 |
|
Imports |
|
|
|
2014-15 |
35333.27 |
351613.95 |
|
2015-16 |
33961.48 |
295811.69 |
|
%Growth2015-16/
2014-15 |
-3.88 |
-15.87 |
|
Trade Balance |
|
|
|
2014-15 |
-9178.81 |
-111685.04 |
|
2015-16 |
-11664.00 |
-99207.75 |
Service Export and Import Down
The Reserve Bank releases monthly data on India’s
international trade in services with a lag of around 45 days.
The value of exports and imports of services during
the month of November 2015 are given in the following Table.
Table: International Trade in Services
|
(US$ Million) |
||
|
Month |
Receipts (Exports)
|
Payments (Imports) |
|
October 2015 |
13,344 |
7,013 |
|
November 2015 |
12,019 |
5,686 |
Note: Data
are provisional.
Monthly data on services are provisional and would
undergo revision when the Balance of Payments (BoP)
data are released on a quarterly basis.
Between
July and December of 2015, months that India’s exports were slumping,
Bangladesh in fact saw exports grow by eight per cent year-on-year. Vietnam saw
exports grow 9.2 per cent in 2015.
The implications of the data for the trade deficit are also
worrying. In December 2015, the trade deficit in dollar terms was 27 per cent
higher than it was in December 2014. Cumulatively, however, the trade deficit
for the first nine months of the current financial year was 11 per cent lower
compared to that in the same period of 2014-15.
Gold demand is once again on the rise. The gold import bill
for 2015 was estimated at being 12 per cent higher than for 2014. This is over
and above the informal market which thrives on the 20% premium in domestic
price compared to world price.
Quick
Estimates for Selected Major Commodities for December, 2015
Trade:
Import
|
SNo. |
Commodities |
(Values in Million USD) |
% change |
|
|
|
|
Dec’14 |
Dec’15 |
Dec’15 |
|
1 |
Cotton Raw & Waste |
17.61
|
16.88
|
-4.15
|
|
2 |
Vegetable Oil |
808.56
|
1083.22
|
33.97
|
|
3 |
Pulses |
349.34
|
631.43
|
80.75
|
|
4 |
Fruits & vegetables |
157.40
|
166.15
|
5.56
|
|
5 |
Pulp and Waste paper |
97.08
|
88.69
|
-8.64
|
|
6 |
Textile yarn Fabric,
made-up articles |
131.36
|
143.21
|
9.02
|
|
7 |
Fertilisers, Crude &
manufactured |
770.45
|
613.37
|
-20.39
|
|
8 |
Sulphur & Unroasted
Iron Pyrites |
17.23
|
27.89
|
61.87
|
|
9 |
Metaliferrous
ores & other minerals |
740.88
|
575.04
|
-22.38
|
|
10 |
Coal, Coke &
Briquettes, etc. |
1463.50
|
952.68
|
-34.90
|
|
11 |
Petroleum, Crude &
products |
9963.44
|
6656.74
|
-33.19
|
|
12 |
Wood & Wood products
|
433.66
|
447.53
|
3.20
|
|
13 |
Leather & leather
products |
85.83
|
86.52
|
0.80
|
|
14 |
Organic & Inorganic
Chemicals |
1356.49
|
1285.68
|
-5.22
|
|
15 |
Dyeing/tanning/colouring
materials. |
179.89
|
184.29
|
2.45
|
|
16 |
Artificial resins,
plastic materials, etc. |
882.40
|
968.15
|
9.72
|
|
17 |
Chemical material &
products |
447.43
|
412.08
|
-7.90
|
|
18 |
Newsprint |
66.96
|
67.10
|
0.21
|
|
19 |
Pearls, precious &
Semi-precious stones |
1935.97
|
1972.26
|
1.87
|
|
20 |
Iron & Steel |
1669.62
|
1323.26
|
-20.74
|
|
21 |
Non-ferrous metals |
887.94
|
839.17
|
-5.49
|
|
22 |
Machine tools |
242.78
|
271.40
|
11.79
|
|
23 |
Machinery, electrical
& non-electrical |
2526.23
|
2498.11
|
-1.11
|
|
24 |
Transport equipment |
2458.02
|
1503.89
|
-38.82
|
|
25 |
Project goods |
311.97
|
221.22
|
-29.09
|
|
26 |
Professional instrument,
Optical goods, etc. |
332.55
|
353.63
|
6.34
|
|
27 |
Electronic goods |
3154.13
|
3816.98
|
21.02
|
|
28 |
Medicinal &
Pharmaceutical products |
490.82
|
501.20
|
2.11
|
|
29 |
Gold |
1364.03
|
3806.29
|
179.05
|
|
30 |
Silver |
182.30
|
472.03
|
158.93
|
|
|
Sub-Total |
33525.87
|
31986.09
|
-4.59
|
|
|
Grand Total |
35333.27
|
33961.48
|
-3.88
|
Note:
The figures for December’14 and December’15 are provisional and subject to
change.