January 1, 2012

Other: Forex

Source: Financial Express

• Public sector undertakings (PSUs) have come to play an increasingly important role in the country's export performance.
• This is revealed by an analysis of the export and foreign exchange earnings performance of the 50 PSUs during the last three years, that is, from 2008-09 to 2010-11.
• These PSUs accounted for roughly 4% of the country's export earnings in '10-11.
• The PSUs' foreign exchange earnings increased by 11.4% last year against a mere 2.5% growth a year before, in '09-10.
• In absolute terms, the PSUs' forex earnings increased from R43,208 crore during '08-09 to R44,271 crore during '09-10 and R49,311 crore during '10-11.
• The free-on-board (FOB) value of exports also steadily increased from R42,287 crore to R48,490 crore during the three-year period.
• The forex earnings-to-net sales ratio increased from 4.48% during '08-09 to 4.85% during '09-10 and decreased thereafter to 4.45% during '10-11.
• Total FOB value of exports as a percentage of sales for the 50 PSUs was lower at 4.37% in '10-11 against 4.39% in '08-09.
• Another feature is that three PSUs, namely Gujarat Alkalies, Nalco and TN Newsprint exported (FOB value) more than 10% of their sales during '10-11.
• In value terms, exports more than doubled for three PSUs, namely GNFC, Hind Organic Chemicals and Mysore Paper.
• Six PSUs—IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, ONGC , MMTC and Nalco—made exports of more than R3,000 crore during '10-11.
• Among these PSUs, the maximum growth in exports was seen with BPCL followed by IOCL.
• Among the 50 PSUs, forex earnings growth turned out to be positive during 2010-11 for 13 PSUs, notable among them are IOCL, MMTC, SAIL, BEML and Hindustan Copper.
• There was 23.5% growth in IOCL's forex earnings compared to a negative growth of 8.1% during 2009-10.
• An opposite trend was seen in the case of HPCL, RCF, Oil India and Petronet LNG. HPCL saw a decline of 13.5% in its forex earnings during 2010-11 compared to a positive growth of 6% during 2009-10.