Government on Friday ruled out giving any new relief package to exporters for helping them cope up with the rapid rise in rupee value against the dollar.

"The government does not have any plan to give more incentives/relief to exporters," Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply. Notably, commerce ministry has maintained that government would soon announce a relief package, for which it has already submitted a Cabinet nod for consideration.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has so far given three packages to exporters aggregating Rs 5,200 crore (Rs 52 billion) as the $160 billion export target for 2007-08 appears difficult to meet.

He has expressed hope that exports target would be met. Palanimanickam said government was already providing 100 per cent tax benefits on profit on exports apart from indirect tax incentives.

During the past three years, government had incurred a revenue loss of around Rs 38,516 crore (Rs 385.16 billion) on account of direct tax sops and under reward schemes for exporters.

In addition, the duty foregone on account of tax exemptions in customs and excise duty to export oriented units and firms operating in SEZs were estimated at Rs 38,764 crore (Rs 387.64 billion) in past three years, he said, adding there was no proposal to provide any new relief packages.

Exporters have been demanding exemption from payment of service tax on all inputs, apart from relief on interest rate, claiming that they have been hit by rupee appreciation. The Indian unit has risen by over 12 per cent against dollar since January this year.