Services exports may grow 10% in FY22: SEPC

The country's services exports are expected to grow 10% in 2021-22 due to healthy growth of sectors such as professional and management consulting, audio visual, freight transport, and telecommunications, according to SEPC.

Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) Chairman Maneck Davar said despite the pandemic, the sector recorded a decline of only 3% in exports in 2020-21 to $205.27 billion.

"Based on the RBI data, we are confident that we will again experience high growth as services exports are projected to grow by 10% in 2021-22 due to the performance of sectors such as professional and management consulting services, audio visual and related services, freight transport services, telecommunications, computer and information services," he said.

The exports in 2019-20 and 2018-19 stood at $214.61 billion and $205.79 billion, respectively.

To further boost the shipments, Davar suggested that the government should frame an incentive scheme in the forthcoming foreign trade policy which should be result-oriented and support MSMEs, which accounts for over 90% of the services sector.

"We have submitted a Duty Remission on Export of Services scheme (DRESS) similar to RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products), I personally think that a less complex scheme can be devised which will truly incentivise services exports and link the same to growth," he added.

He said there are a lot of sectors with huge potential such as telemedicine, business services, healthcare and education where exports can be increased substantially.

"We are preparing a roadmap to submit to the government to further increase services exports," the chairman said.

Over the years, the key markets for India's services exports are advanced countries like the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands and France.

However, in recent years, he said, the Council has experienced a massive growth in exports to Ireland, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia.

India is looking to expand its exports in sectors such as professional and management consulting services, charges for intellectual property rights, financial services, entertainment services including audio visual and gaming, auditing services, education and healthcare.

"Given India's Act East Policy and strategic partnership with East Asia and Asia Pacific region, there is immense potential to increase our services trade with countries like Japan and Australia which could be new destinations for our exports," he added.