Gem & jewellery exports fall 4.6 pct in April-Feb

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's gems and jewellery exports fell 4.6 percent on-year during April 2008 to February 2009, provisional data from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) showed.

Overall gem and jewellery exports in dollar terms fell to $17.79 billion versus $18.65 billion in the same period last year, GJEPC said in a statement on Friday.

In rupee terms, exports rose 5.65 percent to 794 billion rupees in April-Feb as the rupee depreciated 21.5 percent against the dollar in the same period.

Source: http://in.reuters.com/

PM pledges support for exporters

The Prime Minister has pledged more support for British exporters to help expansion into new foreign markets during the downturn.

The Government plans to provide specialist and tailored financial and legal advice to over 1,200 businesses in the coming year.

The PM said that although times are tough, opportunities for British businesses to grow their export markets still exist.

He said:

“There are still markets for British goods if we help businesses access them. That is why it is vital we give British businesses world class support to make the most of global opportunities and increase their activity in overseas markets.”

Gordon Brown and the Minister for Trade and Investment, Lord Davies, spoke to 100 of the North West’s largest business exporters this morning.

The PM said that a recent survey found companies that export tend to be more resilient in a downturn. He said 42% of exporters increased their turnover in the past 12 months, compared with only 23% overall.

But Lord Davies said small and medium businesses needed to continue to be flexible and innovative to seek out new export opportunities.

“Small businesses can find it hard to break into new markets on their own and UKTI is there to help. The £3.5 million programme ‘Gateway to Global Growth’ will start from April helping SMEs to access foreign markets where they see potential for their business.”

The Prime Minister’s visit coincided with the launch of the Real Help Now guide for the North West.

Source; http://www.egovmonitor.com/

New norms fall short: Exporters

NEW DELHI: The new, easier rules to claim service tax refunds announced on Thursday were still falling short, say exporters, who have Rs 2,000
crore pending with the finance ministry. Exporters are also peeved that the new rules do not allow them to put in claims from 2007 onwards, when the refund policy was introduced.

In a circular issued Thursday, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the apex body for indirect taxes, allowed claiming of refunds for the last six months based on self-certified documents. The circular has been on the cards from February 26, when the foreign trade policy was announced.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Fieo), the main exporters’ association, said the government should allow refund of service tax on all eligible services, irrespective of when they were included in the refund scheme.

Expressing his dissatisfaction, Fieo president A Sakthivel pointed out that service tax claims should be permitted within six months of the date of export or the date of receiving proceeds, whichever is later, because some services such as commission to foreign agents are used mostly after exporters have been paid by their overseas customers.

“If export proceeds are realised after six months from the date of exports (RBI allows one year for realisation of export proceeds), such claims will be time-barred under the present stipulation,” he said.

Under the new rules, exporters will be able to claim service tax refund for business done between March and June 2008 quarter by December 2008. To make claims less tedious, the new rules allow exporters to certify their own statements, which will have to be accompanied by Foreign Exchange Remittance Certificates that show how much forex they have received. Where banks have not issued FIRC, the exporter’s certified bank statement can be given. The government will calculate the refund based on the total forex received by an exporter without deducting the bank charges.

Exporters will no longer need to submit registration certificate of their service providers or submit any original documents. Tax department officials will physically verify documents only if there is an in-depth enquiry into a claim, the CBEC circular said. The CBEC has also instructed its field officials to sanction refund claims expeditiously.

The finance ministry had allowed tax refunds on select services from October 2007. It now allows refunds on 19 services, including banking and other financial services, port services, transport of goods by road and railways, general insurance and technical testing and analysis.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

ECGC, a lifeline for exporters

JAIPUR: As recession looms large over the globe, industry catering to exports in Rajasthan suffers a slowdown. If exports have dropped by almost
25%, the order books are running dry for the second quarter.

But more than that, exporters are finding it tough to recover their payments for shipments sent about six months back.

"We have received about 46 claims for shipments affected to overseas buyers from Rajasthan exporters and have cleared 33 payments so far," said Saurabh Srivastava, assistant manager, business development, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd (ECGC). It is a company wholly-owned by the government of India and controlled by the ministry of commerce.

In a first of its kind rescue scenario, recently the ECGC paid a whooping Rs 53.83 crore, the highest claim in the history of ECGC to a textile exporter in Jaipur.

"This was against payments for a shipment worth Rs 65 crore that was sent to a company in Atlanta, US that went bankrupt. We had been dealing with this company for the last 20 years. Earlier, the company had been asking for an extension, but they simply couldn't pay up. We don't blame them entirely. The economy is such but what came in handy was the timely support from ECGC," said Mahesh Tikku from Devgiri Exports, Jaipur.

With their bulk payment stuck up, the company in a financial crunch had to resort to a loan from a PSU bank to continue running their establishment and taking care of overheads. But now with a substantial amount paid up to them against a miniscule premium paid to ECGC, they can think of running the establishment and continue production albeit at a slower pace, owing to global slowdown.

"We have 330 exporters from Jaipur and about 250 from Jodhpur listed with us as payments for exports are open to risks even at the best of times and in the prevailing scenario the risks have assumed large proportions today. Export credit insurance protects exporters from the consequences of the payment risks that are becoming rather rampant today," said Srivastava.

Rajasthan today has over 636 medium and large scale industries and about 2,51,493 small scale industries providing employment to lakhs of people. At the moment there are about 2,500-3,000 small, medium and large units in Jodhpur alone that export wooden furniture. And closer home, 800 units in Jaipur, 200 among these into large scale production of handicrafts. While the overall revenue generated by handicrafts exported from India amount to Rs 10,000 crore, just wooden furniture from Rajasthan generates over Rs 2,000 crore annually.

According to Dileep Baid, president, Federation of Rajasthan Handicraft Exporters (FORHEX), "In the last six to eight months, there has been a drop of about 25% in export orders. Buyers have instructed to hold on to orders till further confirmation. Besides, the order books are drying up now for lack of fresh orders."

Sitapura Industrial Area in Jaipur is going through a similar situation. "Last financial year, we generated a turnover of Rs 800 crore. But 2008-09, we haven't even touched Rs 300 crore. Largely, the garment industry exporting to Australia, US and Japan has received a severe blow. We would estimate the overall drop to about 40%," said S N Kabra, president, Sitapura Industrial Area.

As a spin off, about 30% work force had been rendered jobless in the 150 garment units as they have cut down operations from 24 hours to just 8 hours.

"We have to play smarter. It's time for a complete overhaul in business, time to upgrade our technology, use latest economically conducive, labour efficient devices and get optimum results out of minimum investments," said R K Malpani, a textile exporter, who also has a claim of Rs 25.85 lakh credited into his account through ECGC against a shipment affected to a buyer in the US.

Bhilwara, a large textile townships recognised as a town of export excellence for textiles and diamonds that generates a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore is also experiencing a decline of about 20-30%. "Recession and the dollar escalating are making our buyers demand products at a lower cost. The drop is likely to carry on to the next financial year too," said Prem Garg, secretary, Bhilwara Textile Trade Federation.

As for the incentives and package announced by GOI for leather and textile exports of Rs 325 crore that will start from April 1, 2009 and export incentives for technical textiles, stapling machine, handmade carpets and dried vegetables, experts feels will not make much difference to the prevailing scenario.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Its boom time for flex board manufacturers

SIVAKASI (TN): Flex board manufacturers in Tamil Nadu have never had it so good with several political parties placing orders with units here and business turnover expected to touch Rs 100 crore during this ‘election season’ despite the global meltdown.

Sivakasi, famous for its cracker units and master printers, is bustling with activity with orders coming in droves daily with the Election Commission announcing the dates for the Lok Sabha polls. There has been a spurt in demand for flex boards and banne rs following the Election Commission banning ‘wall advertisements’ and ‘wall posters,’ trade sources said.

Major parties including the Congress, the BJP, the DMK and the AIADMK, have placed orders to the tune of several crores. “The advantage with the flex banners is that they can be used in the next elections also if you preserve them properly,” a flex banne r manufacturer said.

“Earlier Sivakasi used to do printing of posters for all political parties. Now the printing of flex boards is spread out throughout India. Printers in Chennai, Madurai, Mumbai and Kolkata are specialising in printing of the boards,” said Murugesan, a fo reman in a leading printing company.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/

African American Chamber Business To Business Expo

Mt. Vernon, NY - The African American Chamber of Commerce of Westchester and Rockland Counties, Inc. cordially invite you to attend its 10th Annual Business-to-Business Expo (B2B) on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at the Yonkers Public Library at One Larkin Center, Yonkers, NY from 10:00am until 2:00pm.

A goal of the Chamber’s Supplier Diversity Program is to encourage an effective collaboration between qualified minority and women owned suppliers and large buying organizations. The B2B is an exciting and effective program which has produced significant contacts and contracts.

For 10 years the Chamber’s B2B has provided an excellent environment for suppliers to gather and exchange information and procurement opportunities with each other.

Participating vendors will include purchasing representatives from trade associations, state agencies and authorities and corporate entities.

The B2B has proven to be a powerful networking event and you are encouraged to attend. This year there is no fee associated with the event.
Space is limited; we will accept participants on a first come first serve basis. You don’t want to miss this opportunity!!

Source: http://www.westchester.com/

Kohli to focus on building Bharti's B2B powerhouse

Mr Kohli said in a statement that he continued to be the CEO & joint MD of the firm and the sale of his 123,000 shares was for “personal
reasons.” “I continue to hold 180,000 options in the company, some of which have already vested and the balance will vest from time to time as per the vesting schedule. I am happy to confirm that I continue as CEO & joint MD,” he said in a statement to the stock exchanges.

The Bharti scrip fell as much as 7.4% before closing 6.37% down at Rs 550.30 on BSE. The stock saw its maximum trading activity this year on Thursday, with about 24 lakh shares changing hands.

Bharti’s founder & chairman Sunil Mittal called the elevation of Mr Kapoor as a step to empower its top management.

“Today, we have taken another step in further empowering the top management team and laid a strong foundation for embarking on the next phase of our exciting growth journey,” Mr Mittal said in a statement.

Bharti said Mr Kapoor would look after all its consumer businesses spanning mobile, fixed-line , direct-to-home (DTH) and broadband services, while Mr Kohli would increasingly focus on strategy development, governance, organisation development and focus on building Bharti’s “B2B powerhouse.”

Bharti, which has 91 million mobile subscribers in India, is aiming to build this powerhouse over the next five years, which will see it focus on global wholesale voice and data services and other telecom and IT solutions. Mr Kapoor, in his mid-40 s, has been with Bharti Airtel since 1998, and has been instrumental in building its mobile services, especially in Delhi.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/