a) whether Government has introduced new schemes to promote export performance during the last three years;
b) if so, the details thereof;
c) whether there is any monitoring mechanism in place to evaluate the performance of these schemes; and
d) the details of expenditure incurred during the last three years for export promotion schemes and objectives achieved so far?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI JYOTIRADITYA M. SCINDIA)
(a) & (b) The following new incentive schemes were introduced for promoting exports during the last three years:
• Status Holders Incentive Scheme was announced in August, 2009 with an objective to promote investment in upgradation of technology of certain sectors. Duty Credit Scrips for Status Holders @ 1% of FOB value of exports is granted under this scheme.
• Special Bonus Benefit Scheme was introduced in October, 2011 to provide special assistance to specified sectors in Engineering, Chemicals and Pharmaceutical for 6 months. The scheme covered 49 products for benefit @ 1% of FOB value of exports and has sunset on 31.3.2012.
• Special Focus Market Scheme was introduced with a view to increase the competitiveness of exports with a geographical targeting. The scheme provides additional 1 % duty credit when exports are made to 41 countries. This duty credit is over and above the 3% duty credit granted under Focus Market Scheme.
(c) & (d) A Monitoring Committee consisting of representatives of Directorate General of Foreign Trade and the Department of Revenue monitors the financial outgo under the schemes. An amount of Rs. 1350 crores has been provided as additional allocation for each of last three years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 for expansion and deepening of items under Chapter 3 schemes of the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14.
(a) the operational performance of Air India on parameters such as passenger revenues, cargo revenues, available seat kilometres, revenue passenger kilometres and passenger load factor for Indian Airlines and Air India for post and pre merger period since 2004; and
(b) the steps being taken by the Ministry to improve these parameters?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF CIVIL AVIATION ( SHRI AJIT SINGH )
(a): Requisite information is annnexed.
(b): In order to improve its operating and financial performance, Air India has taken various steps such as i) Complete route rationalization of erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines routes and elimination of route network involving parallel operations; ii) Rationalization of certain loss making routes; iii) induction of brand new aircraft on several domestic & international routes to increase passengers appeal; iv) Phasing out of old fleet and consequential reduction in maintenance cost; v) Return of leased aircraft at the end of their tenure or prematurely; vi) Freezing of employment in non-operational areas; vii) Redeployment of staff to cut in-fructuous expenditure; viii) Grounding of ageing fleet including B747-400 which would be used only for certain lines of operations and for operating VVIP flights; ix) Relocation of EDs/IBOs from abroad back to India; x) Closure of overseas offline offices at certain locations; xi) Dismantling of the Frankfurt hub and establishement of the Delhi hub resulting in substantial saving due to restructuring of routes; xii) Establishment of Integrated Operations Control Centres.
a) whether Government has introduced new schemes to promote export performance during the last three years;
b) if so, the details thereof;
c) whether there is any monitoring mechanism in place to evaluate the performance of these schemes; and
d) the details of expenditure incurred during the last three years for export promotion schemes and objectives achieved so far?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI JYOTIRADITYA M. SCINDIA)
(a) & (b) The following new incentive schemes were introduced for promoting exports during the last three years:
• Status Holders Incentive Scheme was announced in August, 2009 with an objective to promote investment in upgradation of technology of certain sectors. Duty Credit Scrips for Status Holders @ 1% of FOB value of exports is granted under this scheme.
• Special Bonus Benefit Scheme was introduced in October, 2011 to provide special assistance to specified sectors in Engineering, Chemicals and Pharmaceutical for 6 months. The scheme covered 49 products for benefit @ 1% of FOB value of exports and has sunset on 31.3.2012.
• Special Focus Market Scheme was introduced with a view to increase the competitiveness of exports with a geographical targeting. The scheme provides additional 1 % duty credit when exports are made to 41 countries. This duty credit is over and above the 3% duty credit granted under Focus Market Scheme.
(c) & (d) A Monitoring Committee consisting of representatives of Directorate General of Foreign Trade and the Department of Revenue monitors the financial outgo under the schemes. An amount of Rs. 1350 crores has been provided as additional allocation for each of last three years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 for expansion and deepening of items under Chapter 3 schemes of the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14.
(a) the operational performance of Air India on parameters such as passenger revenues, cargo revenues, available seat kilometres, revenue passenger kilometres and passenger load factor for Indian Airlines and Air India for post and pre merger period since 2004; and
(b) the steps being taken by the Ministry to improve these parameters?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF CIVIL AVIATION ( SHRI AJIT SINGH )
(a): Requisite information is annnexed.
(b): In order to improve its operating and financial performance, Air India has taken various steps such as i) Complete route rationalization of erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines routes and elimination of route network involving parallel operations; ii) Rationalization of certain loss making routes; iii) induction of brand new aircraft on several domestic & international routes to increase passengers appeal; iv) Phasing out of old fleet and consequential reduction in maintenance cost; v) Return of leased aircraft at the end of their tenure or prematurely; vi) Freezing of employment in non-operational areas; vii) Redeployment of staff to cut in-fructuous expenditure; viii) Grounding of ageing fleet including B747-400 which would be used only for certain lines of operations and for operating VVIP flights; ix) Relocation of EDs/IBOs from abroad back to India; x) Closure of overseas offline offices at certain locations; xi) Dismantling of the Frankfurt hub and establishement of the Delhi hub resulting in substantial saving due to restructuring of routes; xii) Establishment of Integrated Operations Control Centres.
