The government on Thursday announced cuts in customs duty on manmade fibers as part of measures to help exporters tide over the rising in the rupee, which has risen over 12% since beginning of the year.The government also eased some credit terms for leather and textile exporters, finance minister P Chidambaram said in the lower house of parliament on Thursday, while closing a debate on the supplementary demand for grants. The rupee’s gain has eroded the earnings of exporters.

“The sharp appreciation of the rupee over the last several months has put pressure on the export sectors, particularly those with low import intensity such as leather, textiles, handicrafts and marine products,’’ Chidambaram said.” Trade minister Kamal Nath said in New Delhi on Thursday that he expects the measures to help the textile industry and that more measures were being considered to help exporters.

He reiterated that there would be no change in the government’s $160 billion export target for the fiscal year to March 31, 2008. “Obviously, there is much more that the textile sector wanted,” Nath said, when asked if he favoured relief measures for sectors hit by the rupee’s gains in addition to the ones outlined earlier by the finance minister.

“We have moved a cabinet note on that,” he said, but did not elaborate. The finance minister announced in parliament on Thursday a series of measures to ease the pain of some exporters. Customs duty on manmade fibers is being reduced to 5% from 10% and for polyester filament yarn and polyester staple fiber it will be lowered to 5 percent from 7.5%, Chidambaram said.

The government has come out with a number of tax breaks to exporters for the second time this year to help industries such as jute, cashew nuts and coffee protect earnings from the rupee’s appreciation against the dollar. “The rupee’s rise has a “positive side’’ in terms of lower production costs in industries that obtain their raw materials overseas,” Chidambaram said. It also leads to reduced import bills and a cut in the cost of servicing external debt.