The Union government has provided Rs 2,000 crore incentives to support the country's sagging exports, Unon Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said. The government's subvention is for clearing its dues to the export sector. Chidambaram told that as much as Rs 1,550 crore would be used to clear existing dues and the remaining Rs 450 crore would go towards interest subvention rate hike from 2 per cent to 3 per cent.    

The Finance Minister said the interest subvention rate hike will apply to all sectors under the existing schemes. Even the Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma had said that the government was looking to expand the interest subvention scheme to cover more sectors. In this regard, Sharma has convened a meeting of Board of Trade (BoT) on August 27 to review the current situation and the international trade scenario.    

Under the Market Access Initiative and Market Development Assistance to help exporters explore new markets and consolidate their presence in existing ones, the Union government is also considering enhancing funding, Sharma had said.