Commerce Ministry backs fair valuation of rupee

New Delhi: The Commerce Ministry wants there should be "fair valuation" of rupee keeping in view the global environment as it has a bearing on exports, Parliament was informed on November 30.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that there are many factors that influence exports including demand intensity, market share, price elasticity, valuation of other currencies.

"Department of Commerce had suggested a fair valuation of rupee keeping in view of the global market situation. The government and the RBI are closely monitoring the situation including exchange rate of rupee in nominal and real terms and macroeconomic policies," she said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

She was replying to a question as to what extent strengthening of rupee will impact exports and whether the ministry has asked to devalue rupee to boost exports and reasons behind RBI's refusal to do so.

During the April-October period of current fiscal, exports dipped by 0.17 per cent to USD 154.91 billion. Replying to a separate question, she said it is "true" that India's pharmaceutical exports to Japan are not significant.

It was only USD 143.83 million in 2015-16. She said Japan is a "highly regulated market and product registrations in Japan are time consuming and tedious".

Keeping in view of getting access to Japanese market, the minister said top regulators from India have been visiting there and putting all out efforts to promote generics in that market. Replying to a separate question, Sitharaman said that India has been taking up the visa issue consistently with the UK.

India has urged the UK to address concerns of the domestic industry in the interest of bilateral trade in services between the two countries. Changes in visa regime in the UK "are expected to adversely impact the ease of entry and competitiveness of Indian IT companies in the UK thereby negatively impacting bilateral trade relations," she added.