The commendable performance of Sri Lankan exporters and the resilience shown during an unprecedented COVID 19 pandemic is to be rewarded by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board, of the Ministry of Trade, through a proposed export stimulus Reward Scheme. The exporters who managed the risk and the vulnerabilities despite the current global economic crisis to be further encouraged by rewarding their achievements.
The proposal of the Sri Lanka Export Development Board presented by the Minister of Trade, to the Export Development Council of Ministers (EDCM) on an Export Development Reward Scheme (EDRS) at its meeting held on 23rd September, has been discussed by the council led by the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The proposed scheme will be operative under two categories; covering SME‘s and large exporters for consecutive two quarters starting from October, 1 2020 based on the export performance of the exporters.
The main objective of the scheme is to encourage exporters to increase their volume of exports in future to be eligible to apply for the rewards.
The quantum of reward will be calculated based on the incremental export turnover of the particular quarter compared to the value earned a year ago. Large scale exporters with an annual export turnover of over Rs. 750 million will be paid 2% of the additional export earnings earned during the relevant period concerning the corresponding period of the previous year while SME Exporters getting 3.5% of the additional export earnings earned during the relevant period concerning the corresponding period of the previous year.
The implementation of this scheme is expected to generate an additional export income of US $ 600 million during the period of 1st October 2020 and 31st March 2021.
Although the Government is doing its utmost to alleviate the hardships faced by exporters, they have been adversely hit by the cancellation of orders and declining product demands. However, the exporters are diversifying their production lines grabbing the global new emerging opportunities due to the COVID 19, while some other companies are diversifying markets to avoid the uncertainties. Such positive changes can make a progressive difference in the country’s export earnings.
