Worried over high trade deficit, the Commerce Ministry has put in place a mechanism for periodic and regular appraisal of imports. Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said there are several areas where imports need to be appraised.
"We are trying and seeing how we can encourage industry to manufacture those products. We required to reduce our dependence on imports. "In order to do that, there is an institutional mechanism which we have put in place in the Department of Commerce for a periodic and regular import appraisal and in consultation with relevant departments to take policy measures to try and help the trade deficit not to go beyond a manageable limits," he said.
Exports growth slipped to 7.33 per cent in July after witnessing a double-digit expansion in the previous two months, pushing up the trade deficit to one-year high of $ 12.22 billion. In 2012-13, the country's trade deficit touched an all time high of $190 billion. Meanwhile an official statement said while the global environment still remains challenging, policy action in India has been repositioned so as to better tackle the negative impact of external shocks.