Santosh Sarangi said that India is likely to end this fiscal year with total exports of$760-770 billion.
The new Foreign Trade policy (FTP) is expected to help boost the country's exports to $2 trillion by 2030 by shifting from incentives to remission and entitlement-based regimes.
In a conversation with NDTV, the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Santosh Sarangi, said that India is likely to end this fiscal year with total exports of $760-770 billion as against $676 billion in 2021-22. "We are expecting to cross the 760-765 billion mark this year. Last year, 676 billion was also the highest ever. The services export will cross 300 billion for the first time," said Mr Sarangi, who released the new Foreign Trade policy on Friday.
When asked about the trading INR by foreign countries in FTP 2023, he said that the special Vostro accounts have been opened in 18 countries after getting the approval of the RBI and the Central Bank of that country.
"RBI has already issued a special notification in this regard. Under what circumstances you can open a Vostro account, around 30 Vostro accounts have been opened in 60 banks in 18 countries. As soon as this special Vostro account is opened, the importers and exporters will come to know about it and transactions in rupee will increase," he said.
Santosh Sarangi added that they have introduced some changes in the FTP 2023 that were needed for the "export benefits and fulfilment of an export obligation." "We are hoping that these areas will help INR become a global currency," he said.
On the exporters' schemes, he added we have improvised the duty foregone interest to benefit the exporters.
The new Foreign Trade Policy will introduce an amnesty scheme for exporters to help them close old pending authorisations and start afresh, he added.
"FTP 2023 offers an Amnesty Scheme for one-time settlement of default in export obligations by Advance Authorization. The relief is being provided to exporters who are unable to fulfill their Export Obligation against the EPCG (Export Promotion Credit Guarantee ) and Advance Authorization," Mr Sarangi said.
The new FTP identifies four new Towns of Export Excellence (TEE) -- Faridabad, Moradabad, Mirzapur and Varanasi -- in addition to the already existing 39 TEEs. This was done to detect and solve problems that are taking place at the district level, Mr Sarangi added.
Mr Sarangi, in the Foreign Trade policy 2023, has stressed the e-commerce export hub and its potential future. He said, "Right now, the e-commerce channels don't get export benefits. The idea behind the e-commerce export hub is to facilitate processing and packaging, and the return policy. "
He added, "We have also increased the value limit for exports through courier service from ₹ 5 lakh to ₹ 10 lakh per consignment."