The department of commerce is working with the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) to explore ways to compile sector-wise data on services, thereby making the trade data comprehensive at a time when India is negotiating trade deals with a host of nations.
The process of measuring services trade is complex and is not as comprehensive as the export-import data of goods. Currently, the value of exports and imports of services is released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and it comes with a lag of over two months.
Exporters said often there is an overlap between the data of different services, making the classification of sectors challenging. This hurts the policymaking process, especially now, when the government has set an ambitious target of $1 trillion for services exports by 2030. Lack of adequate data also makes the analysis of the impact of trade deals with respect to the services sector difficult.
“The department of commerce has been in talks with the information technology backbone of GST-GSTN over the last three months for services sector data mining. If it works out, data can be available at a faster pace (within a month’s time),” a senior government official told Business Standard.
Granular services sector data is crucial at a time when India is negotiating a slew of free trade agreements (FTAs). Besides, the central bank doesn’t share the details of country-wise data with the exporters due to lack of legislation on data sharing between various government departments and agencies.
“India is negotiating FTAs with various countries. Right now, bilateral trade data for sectors such as health care or education service at the moment. The RBI does not share the data with the export promotion council as there isn’t a legislation in place for data sharing. As a result, we end up referring to other sources for data such as OECD,” Sunil H Talati, chairman, Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC).
India’s services exports touched $254 billion during 2021-22 and goods worth $421 billion were exported during the same period.
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