EPCH chairman K L Katyal lauded the decision of the commerce ministry to reduce the rate of interest on pre-shipment and post-shipment credit from 11 per cent to 9 per cent. He felt that the move would facilitate small and medium exporters to get the credit at concessional rate.

He also appreciated the directive of the government that drawback claims pending for more than two months would attract interest. This, he said, would prompt the dealing officer to make the necessary payments to the exporters in time. However, Katyal stressed that the 5 per cent service tax introduced in the Budget and being paid by the exporters on sea freight, courier, shipping companies, air travel etc be refunded as the government was committed to provide duty free rawmaterial and service to the exporters to enable them to face international competition. Such kind of service tax, he argued, is not imposed on the exporters of other countries.

He further said that the government should come forward to provide some incentive for fast realisation of exports proceeds.

Katyal further said that special attention should be given to the handicrafts sector as had been done in the case of other sectors like electronic, software, floriculture, biotechnology etc.