CALCUTTA, May 7: The commerce ministry will declare the rates of about 600 items under the duty entitlement pass book scheme within the next four days, a senior trade official told exporters on Wednesday.

Additional director-general of foreign trade, A Chandra, said this will be the second set of items after the 51 declared last month. The third list will follow by the end of the month.

"We are trying to complete the whole process by June 15 and hope that exporters' doubts will be cleared. The second list, proposed to cover a wide cross-section of the industry, will enable exporters to understand the incentives they will get," he said.

The rates applicable in the old value-based advance licence scheme are being considered while formulating the new rates in the duty entitlement pass book (DEPB) scheme. These will be revised at regular intervals.

"Revisions will be made, considering the trend of international trade and the prices of inputs. I think it will be done on an yearly basis," Chandra said.

The commerce ministry is also thinking of allowing exporters to club their licences, as long as the inputs are same.

"If the inputs are same and the exporting products are more or less the same then clubbing of licences will be allowed. There will some more clarification in the input-output norms," Chandra said.

The government feels that exports will pick up sharply, and grow 10 per cent during 1997-98 he said. According to provisional trade data released by the government on Wednesday, export growth during 1996-97 was a meagre 4.01 per cent.

"By the end of June, we will get a realistic picture. I hope that the export growth will be more than 10 per cent. We have retained the target of achieving $100 billion by 2001-02 because the recession in the export market is only a passing phase," Chandra added.

The commerce ministry is also trying to identify new markets. Latin America is one of them, considering that India's share in the region's global trade is only 0.69 per cent.

"If we can take it up to one per cent, we will able to reach a 10 per cent growth," Chandra said. He ruled out any change in the turnover criteria for determining export houses, trading houses.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.