Exporters in their budget meeting with finance minister Nirmala Sitharamanhave proposed a fund with a minimum corpus of 0.5 percent of the preceding year’s export that will be used for marketing overseas.

They have also proposed incentives to the private sector to set up a shipping line that could lead to savings of as much as $50 billion in terms of lower outward remittances.

A. Sakthivel, the president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said the government provides inadequate marketing support to exporters. “The support given under the Market Development Assistance Scheme with a total allocation of less than Rs 200 crore for promoting exports of $460-470 billion is just a drop in the ocean.

When global demand is declining, it becomes all the more necessary to go for aggressive marketing. However, most Indian companies are cutting their marketing expenditure in view of the contraction.

“If we are not visible in the market, we will not get whatever little demand there is and may not exploit it when the global situation improves.SME exporters are being provided marketing support by most developing and developed countries for providing marketing exposure,” he said.

Sakthivel said India’soutward remittance on account of transport services is increasing year after year.“We remitted $82.65 billion as transport service charges in 2021. When we are looking at increasing our international trade to $2 trillion in an economy of $5 trillion, the outgo on transport services will increase to $150-200 billion.”

“If an Indian shipping line gets only 25 per cent of such a market, we can save $40-50 billion every year,” he said.

The exporters’ body demanded tweaking of customs duties on certain products and credit at affordable rates.