Amid these testing times, it’s time for rejoice for Indian Exports as Indian Exports have jumped three fold from $10.36 billion in the month of April last year to $30.63 billion in April this year as per the data released on Friday by the Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
India’s merchandise trade shot up by a massive 193.63 percent in April due to the severe low base effect. Though it increased by 60% in the month of March.
Anup Wadhawan, Commerce Secretary said,” The figures represented a strong beginning for 2021-22. Even if April, 2019 is considered as the base, the latest performance is significantly positive”. He also stated that a strong recovery in import growth was a sign of good trade performance to come.
In April, Imports shot up by 167% to $45.72 billion. In the month of March, Imports had risen by 53.7 percent.. Whereas India’s trade deficit in April stood at $15.1 billion which saw a rise from $13.93 billion in the previous month of March. On a monthly basis, India’s trade position has returned to its familiar deficit territory. It witnessed a rare trade surplus of $800 million last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced national lockdown. In March, it stood at $ 13.93 billion. Economists further state that the trade deficit gap will continue to widen.
When asked about if there can be any possible impact on shipments due to COVID-related restrictions being imposed by certain states, in response to that Anup Wadhawan stated, “I do not see any major impact on our exports.”
Sharad Kumar Saraf, President , Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said,” The need of the hour is to soon notify the RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products) rates to remove uncertainty from the minds of the trade and industry, thereby helping in further forging new contracts with overseas buyers.”
Mahesh Desai, Chairman, EEPC India said, “As vaccine coverage rises in Europe and North America we see further increase in demand. Shipments to China have already been quite healthy and we expect the trend to continue.”
Moreover, He further stated that the pending issues such as lack of clarity on Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP), Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and Inverted duty structure continue to hold back the sector.
It is to be noted that Service exports were estimated at USD 21.17 billion in April, while imports stood at USD 13 billion. Petroleum and crude oil, which constitutes the largest part of Import bill, stood at $10.87 billion which was slightly up from the $ 10.27 billion worth of imports in the month of March. In the month of April, Gold imports stood at $6.23 billion against $ 7 billion in March.