Cabinet approves ₹25,060-crore Export Promotion Mission to boost India’s export competitiveness

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Export Promotion Mission (EPM) with a total outlay of Rs 25,060 crore over six years.

The mission, announced in the Union Budget 2025-26, is designed to sharpen India’s export competitiveness, particularly for MSMEs, first-time exporters and labour-intensive sectors, according to an official readout.

The mission will run from FY26 to FY31 and is anchored through collaboration between the Department of Commerce, the MSME Ministry, the Finance Ministry, financial institutions, export promotion councils, commodity boards, industry bodies and state governments.

EPM will be implemented through two sub-schemes - Niryat Protsahan (₹10,401 crore) and Niryat Disha (₹14,659 crore).

Under the mission, priority support will be extended to sectors impacted by recent global tariff escalations, such as textiles, leather, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, and marine products.

Niryat Protsahan, which will expand access to affordable trade finance for MSMEs through interest subvention, export factoring, credit guarantees, credit cards for e-commerce exporters and support for diversification into new markets.

Niryat Disha, which will focus on non-financial support such as export quality certification, assistance for branding and packaging, trade fair participation, warehousing and logistics support, inland transport reimbursements and trade intelligence and capacity building.

The mission also subsumes existing schemes, including the Interest Equalisation Scheme (IES) and the Market Access Initiative (MAI) to align support with current trade realities.

The measures are expected to help sustain export orders, protect jobs and support diversification into new markets.

The mission will help insulate domestic exporters from the high tariffs imposed by the US on Indian goods. The US has imposed a hefty 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, starting August 27.

It is expected to improve MSMEs’ access to trade finance, strengthen export readiness, improve market visibility of Indian products and boost exports from non-traditional districts, while creating jobs across manufacturing, logistics and allied sectors.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will be the implementing agency, with end-to-end processes to be executed through a dedicated digital platform integrated with existing trade systems.

India's exports grew 6.74% to USD 36.38 billion in September, while imports jumped 16.6%, widening the trade deficit to USD 31.15 billion, the highest in over a year.

Cumulatively, during April-September this year, exports increased by 3.02 per cent to USD 220.12 billion, while imports rose 4.53 per cent to USD 375.11 billion, leaving a trade deficit of USD 154.99 billion.