Budget 2025 may provide some succour to the country’s exporters if a proposed marketing support fund with an estimated annual corpus of about ₹1,000 crore finds favour with the Finance Ministry. 

The idea is to help promote exports to promising markets, including the US, where a potential tariff penalisation of China by the Trump administration could open up more opportunities, sources have said.

“The Commerce Department is holding discussions with the Finance Ministry on the possibility of making provisions for a marketing support fund for exports in the forthcoming budget. The outlay could be around ₹1,000 crore annually but it is still being negotiated. This would push exports of key products in important markets,” a source tracking the matter told businessline.

The proposed marketing support fund could be used by beneficiary exporters not only for participating in exhibitions, fairs and road-shows in foreign markets but also meeting various regulatory requirements for products such as pharmaceuticals, the source said.

$1 trillion target

Special focus would be on the US because of the increased possibilities there as US President-elect Donald Trump has warned of stiff tariffs on Chinese goods after he assumes office later this month, the source added.

“The Commerce Department believes that if the country has to go for massive growth in exports keeping the $1 trillion goods exports target by 2030 in mind, then marketing is the key and a dedicated fund could help,” the source said.

Efforts to push exports of six identified items in 20 identified high potential markets has already begun. The Commerce Department recently hosted a meeting with commercial heads from Indian missions in these countries to discuss growth strategies. The countries include US, Australia, France, China, Russia, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia. The focus items include engineering goods, electronics and pharmaceuticals amongst others.

“The market support scheme being envisaged is likely to be based on product-market linkage. It would be extended for export of identified items to particular markets after potential for growth is assessed, ” the source explained.

Anti-China factor

For the US, where exporters see greater opportunities after Trump warned China of additional 60 per cent import tariffs, there is demand for a separate carve-out. 

Exporters’ body FIEO proposed that a marketing scheme focussing on the US with a corpus of ₹250 crore per year for three years could generate additional exports of $25 billion.

Indian exporters have been struggling to make their shipments grow in an unstable global market with the Russia-Ukraine war and conflict in West Asia continuing to fuel geo-political uncertainties. 

Following a decline in 2023-24 by 3.11 per cent (year-on-year) to $437 billion, goods export growth inched up in the April-November 2024 period by 2.17 per cent to $ 284.31 billion. But exports in November 2024 fell 4.8 per cent to a 25-month low of $32.1 billion.