Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal is likely to chair a meeting of the Board of Trade scheduled for next month an official said recently.
The meeting will be conducted with an agenda to discuss ways to boost India’s exports. The Board of Trade is an advisory body on foreign trade policy headed by a Union Minister.
The board also included representatives from States, Union Territories and important officials from the public and private sectors. It provides the platform to deliberate on ways of boosting the Country’s exports.
The Government appointed 29 non-official members to the board recently which include people from diverse sectors. “The board may meet sometime in mid-September,” an official said.
The board now has members like Laghu Udyog Bharati Executive Member Om Prakash Mittal, India Cellular and Electronics Association Chairman Pankaj Mahindroo and Amul MD RS Sodhi.
The platform facilitates a healthy discussion and consultation on trade with various stakeholders of the industry. The board also advises the government on policy matters related to foreign trade policy (FTP).
The main objective of the board is to boost India’s trade. The meeting is expected to deliberate on the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2022-23. The meeting also provides an opportunity for States and UTs to participate and provide their input on the nation’s foreign trade policy. The Central Government also gets a chance to apprise states about the standing of India’s trade and the situation in the global order of trade.
Khalid Khan, the Vice-President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations suggested discussions on the circular of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued last month about the measures of international trade settlement in rupees. “Some kind of standard operating procedure should be released for banks on this,” Khan said.
In the view of increasing interest of global traders in Indian currency, the RBI asked the commercial banks to make arrangements for export and import transactions in the Indian rupee.
India’s trade deficit almost tripled to $30 billion in July as the exports rose by 2.14%. The total amount of Indian exports reached $36.27 billion. The jump in trade deficit is mainly due to the rise in international prices of crude oil which rose by almost 70% in the last few months.
In the first four months of the financial year 2022-23 (April-July), India’s exports rose by 20.13% to $157.44 billion while the imports rose by 48.12% to $256.43 billion. The total trade deficit stands at $98.99 billion.
