New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government has cracked down only against illegal slaughterhouses and the drop in export of buffalo meat last fiscal was due to global factors, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.
Sitharaman also claimed in Lok Sabha that there was no negative impact on the export of any product due to demonetisation.
"What is being done in Uttar Pradesh is on illegal slaughter houses. We don't want anything illegal. The Chief Minister has also said that the action is only against illegal slaughter houses," she said during Question Hour replying to a supplementary asked by AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi.
The Minister said the drop of 8.87 per cent in buffalo meat export in 2015-16 in comparison to 2014-15 was due to various factors.
Sitharaman said China was not giving access to its markets to various Indian goods, including buffalo meat.
At this, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan remarked "don't slaughter only buffalo", provoking laughter in the House.
Replying to another supplementary, the Minister said there was no negative impact of demonetisation on exports.
"In fact, small and medium enterprises are keeping up their export. There is no negative impact on exports whatsoever," she said.
Sitharaman said the reason for slowdown in exports include fall in global demand and fall in commodity prices impacting the terms of trade of commodity exporters, fall in prices of petroleum crude resulting in consequent decline in prices as well as export realisations for petroleum products, which are major items of exports for India.
Other factors were that EU countries, which account for nearly 16 per cent of India's export, are facing problems of stagnation and deflation. China was also experiencing a slowdown, she said.
The recovery in the US has been moderate and uncertain in terms of sustainability, while there has been a fall in demand for precious goods like pearls, precious and semi-precious stones especially from oil producing countries.
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