New Delhi: The government on Wednesday launched Rs 4,531 crore market access support for exporters under which financial support will be provided to participate in activities such as international fairs and exhibitions.
It will help exporters at a time when they are facing a steep 50 per cent tariff by the US.
The measure is a part of the Rs 25,060-crore export promotion mission, which is aimed at enhancing competitiveness of Indian exporters. It has 11 components.
Market Access Support (MAS) is the first component of the mission that has been operationalised from Wednesday and the remainder will be rolled out by January-end, Director General of Foreign Trade Ajay Badhoo said.
Under this, Rs 4,531 crore is being allocated for six years (2025-31). Out of this, Rs 500 crore has been earmarked for 2025-26 as only three months remain in the fiscal year.
Of the Rs 500 crore, Rs 330 crore is for clearing dues of the Market Access Initiative (MAI), which functioned as a standalone scheme until the last financial year.
Under the MAS, structured financial and institutional support will be provided for activities including Buyer-Seller Meets (BSMs), participation in international trade fairs and exhibitions, Mega Reverse Buyer-Seller Meets (RBSMs) organised in India.
For BSM, Rs 5 crore assistance per event will be provided, while for RBSM support has been capped at Rs 10 crore.
For trade delegations the cap is Rs 5 crore. For each event, the government will bear 60 per cent of the costs and 40 per cent will be shouldered by the private sector.
For priority areas the government support can go up to 80 per cent, Badhoo said.
He added that for participating in BSM and trade delegations, 35 per cent has been reserved for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Priority sectors under the MAS are agriculture and allied industries, handicraft, handlooms, leather, sports goods, telecom, defence, tourism, medical, logistics, legal, audio visual, communications, construction and environment-related services.
A new component for proofs-of-concept and product demonstrations to potential overseas buyers, particularly in technology-intensive, emerging and sunrise sectors, will be notified shortly to complement existing market access interventions, the DGFT said.
This has been brought in on the request of ministries of telecom, IT and electronics.
“Mandatory online feedback mechanisms will be instituted for exporters participating in each supported event, covering parameters such as buyer quality, business leads generated and market relevance. Based on feedback and implementation learnings, the MAS guidelines will be progressively refined and institutionalised,” Badhoo said.
A forward-looking three-to-five-year calendar of major market access events will be prepared and approved in advance, enabling exporters and organising agencies to plan participation well ahead of time and ensuring continuity of market development efforts.
The export promotion mission approved by the cabinet in November this year has two components — Niryat Protsahan and Niryat Disha. The outlay for Niryat Protsahan is Rs 10,401 crore while for Niryat Disha Rs 14,659 crore has been kept aside.
Niryat Protsahan is for reducing the cost of credit and includes schemes like interest subvention for Micro Small and Medium Exporters.
The interest subvention component of the mission alone will cost about Rs 5,000 crore.
Niryat Protsahan will also offer collateral guarantee, support for export factoring, credit enhancement to improve borrower’s credit profile and credit cards.
India’s exports rebounded by 19.37 per cent to a six-month high of USD 38.13 billion in November after contracting in October, driven by higher shipments of engineering and electronics goods that helped bring down the trade deficit to a five-month low of USD 24.53 billion.
