The 2022-2023 economic report will be released shortly after the President’s speech. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to present the union budget on 1 February.
Indian President Draupadi Murmu said in his opening speech at a joint parliamentary meeting at the start of the budget session on Tuesday that India’s efforts to boost manufacturing have allowed it to boost exports of toys and electronics.
2022-2023 Economic Review closes immediately after the President’s speech. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to present the union budget on 1 February.
“India’s manufacturing capacity is on the rise. The country is making efforts towards manufacturing semiconductor chips for airplanes. Due to such efforts, India’s exports are rising. Until a few years back India used to have high volumes of mobile phones. But now India is a big large exporter of mobile phones. Toy imports have plummeted by 70% while exports have jumped by over 60%,” Murmu said.
India exported $326.63 million worth of toys in the fiscal year 2021-22, up from $96.17 million in 2014-15, Minister of External Affairs of the Union of Micro Businesses, small and medium (MSME) Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma.
In his written reply to Lok Sabha, the Minister said that India’s toy imports fell to $109.72 million in 2021-22 from $332.55 million in 2014-15.
Mint has reported that the Union Government is planning a 3,500 crore Manufacturing Linked Incentive (PLI) program for compliant toys by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to reduce imports of toys dangerous play from China and strengthen domestic production capacity.
A government survey in 2019 found that only 33% of toys from China were safe. After that, a number of measures were taken, including issuing a quality control order and imposing a higher toy tax to prevent dangerous toys from entering the country.
