Mumbai, July 29: Taking benefit of strong foreign exchange reserves, the import duties could be slashed further to make overseas sourcing cheap and contain appreciation in the value of the rupee vis-a-vis US dollar, senior Commerce Ministry official said on Tuesday. The foreign exchange reserve base of $84 billion provides an opportunity to reduce country's import tariffs to Asian levels (of about 10 per cent), helping to reduce cost of inputs, economic advisor in the Commerce Ministry H A C Prasad said addressing interactive session organised by Federation of Indian Export Organisations here.
The current foreign exchange inflows was not "hot money" but due to a surge in remittances including growth in service exports, and on this backdrop, liberalisation of import regime (tariffs) could help to manage the value of rupee, Prasad said.
The surge in forex have not affected the exporters till date, he said adding part of reserves could be used to set up a export fund to provide cheap funds to exporters.
The US dollar had turned cheaper vis-a-vis Rupee while some export transactions were now being invoiced in Euro and British Sterling pound, he said.
The Ministry was currently conducting a study on invoicing pattern of Indian exporters and would later share its findings with agencies like Reserve Bank of India to facilitate policy formulation, he added. Bureau Report