Till some time back, I was of the impression that the Exporting community was a preferred lot in the Indian business scenario. But today when the USD has gone below Rs.41 mark and many small and medium exporters like me have burnt their fingers, I feel, this is the most neglected business class of the country. In the past, when India didn't have enough USD reserve even to pay the oil bill of one day, the Indian government had come up with lots of incentives for the exporters urging them to increase export volume. Now when the Govt is sitting on a whopping 200 billion plus US Dollars and more is coming by way of FDI etc, nobody seems to be caring for the exporters, particularly the small and medium ones who even do not know or are not allowed hedging and other protective measures. Does it mean our Government is very much opportunistic? The answer may be yes seeing a mute RBI just watching the Rupee to appreciate recklessly, which has come up to 41 level to one USD from more than 44 level in the very recent times. I don't have much data about the volume of commodity export taking place. At the 44 level also, we were not competitive enough to China (dominating the world business) and now at this level of USD, one can not even dream of becoming competitive. It seems, the Indian government, the RBI all should take some serious lesson from the Chinese authorities as to how they device ways to protect their exporters and maintain a steady Yuan. Already, the exporters here have to face a lot of hurdles from all the departments like Customs, Excise etc which add to the shipping cost. Then the Govt has come up levying service tax to almost everything, right from banking charges to shipping, clearing expenses and now this exchange rate. The various incentives provided earlier are being done away with. If this continues, the time may come again when the Govt will start begging again to the exporting community and at that time, these FII on whose Dollar inflows, the Government has become so bullish, may not be seen as they will be the first to take their money out of India.
It is high time, the exporters come together and convey their grievances to our Government and the Government itself pays proper heed to the problems.
