Visakhapatnam: Exports from Andhra Pradesh dropped drastically in the 2015-16 fiscal that ended in March. The state lost around Rs 700 crore of revenue as its share in the central taxes as the value of exports declined.
According to data of the Union commerce and industry ministry, the value of exports from AP fell by at least Rs 17,670 crore against the previous year. Exports in 2014-15 stood at Rs 97,162.41 crore, and dropped to Rs 79,492.31 crore in 2015-16.
This drop in exports is attributed to suspension of ferroalloy chrome production, which was exported on a large scale, and also to some amount of seafood exporters shifting to Chennai because of lack of sufficient reefer containers at Andhra ports.
All-India export figures too saw a drop. The value of exports was $310.34 billion in 2014-15, but fell to $262.29 billion during 2015-16, a 15 per cent drop. “Due to non-availability of reefer containers, some seafood exporters had to go to Chennai during that period. There are many reefer containers that come to Chennai port with fruits from other countries and they take seafood back. Due to this they were also able to offer competitive freight charges,” said G. Sambasiva Rao, president-elect of the Andhra Pradesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and managing director of Sravan Shipping.
He said there was a complete shutdown of ferroalloy units during the same period due to power prices. “Ferroalloy chrome was not exported at all. These two factors among some others might have contributed largely to the drop in exports from the state. Apart from contributing the state’s share to central taxes, exports also provide local opportunities, help the local economy and provide jobs,” Mr Rao said.
Union commerce and industry minister Nir-mala Sitharaman has said that the key reasons for the decline of all In-dian exports is the slowdown in developed and emerging economies and the sharp fall in crude and petroleum product prices.
Speaking in Parliament recently, she had outlined the measures the government has taken to boost exports, like the new Fo-reign Trade Policy (2015-20) which was announced on April 1, 2015 and focused on supporting both manufacturing and services exports.
“By way of trade facilitation and enhancing the ease of doing business, government reduced the number of mandatory documents required for exports and imports to three each, which is comparable with international benchmarks. The trade community can file applications online for various trade-related schemes. Online payment of application fees through credit/debit cards and electronic funds transfer from 53 banks has also been put in place,” the minister had said.
Cargo handling at ports improve
While the last fiscal was disappointing, the first six months of the new fi-scal 2016-17 that began in April this year, has rekindled hopes of a revival of the exports sector.
In the first six months of the new fiscal, major ports in the country have seen some growth, which could point to a surge in exports. Visakhapatnam port has registered 11 per cent growth compared to last fiscal, handling 30.6 MT of cargo. Major ports in India handled 315.4 MT of cargo during the first six months and showed a positive growth of 5.1 per cent over the same period last year. They had handled 299.5 MT in the same period last year.
This improvement is seen as the result of measures initiated by the Ministry of Shipping to improve the performance of ports, such as mechanisation of terminals, improving the Turn-Around Time (TAT), quick evacuation of cargo, expansion of infrastructure, and skill development of employees.
“We hope that exports from Andhra Pradesh in the present fiscal will see improvement as many direct shipping liners were introduced recently to various export and import hubs,” said G. Sambasiva Rao, president elect of the Andhra Pradesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and managing director of Sravan Shipping.
