The Directorate General of Foreign Trade has put up with the Finance Ministry for the extension of the interest equalisation scheme for the export sector which is expected to expire by this month end. DGFT has observed significant benefits accruing to exports through this scheme which provides a subvention of 2% on interest to loans taken by exporters and 3% subvention for MSME exporters.
The scheme basically enables exporters of more than 400 products and particularly MSME exporters of all types to obtain bank credit at a subsidised interest rate as provided by the government. Thus the scheme enables exporters and manufacturers access to cheap credit, improving their competitiveness in the global market. While the decision on extension of the scheme is yet to be made, the export community has also demanded increase in the rate of subvention which the Finance Ministry has turned down.
