ISLAMABAD, July 1: The government is likely to fix export target at around $12 billion for the financial year 2003-04 owing to an encouraging exports performance during the current fiscal year.

Officials told Dawn on Tuesday the final decision to this effect is expected to be taken in a meeting of economic managers in the next week when the exports receipts of the current fiscal year would have firmed up.

The chairman, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), when reached on telephone, told Dawn the export was expected to touch the figures of $10.8 billion or $10.9 billion during the current fiscal year against the revised target of $10.4 billion set for the financial year 2002-03.

The government had fixed the exports target at $9.663 billion 2002-03, which was later revised upward to $10.4 billion due to an excellent performance of the exports. With these the government has projected export target at $11.072 billion in 2003-04 budget.

Officials said following the expected surpassing of the export target for the current financial year, the ministry of commerce was considering to enhance the export target for the next fiscal year.

During the budget, the imports target was fixed at $11.998 billion for the financial year 2003-04 against the revised target of $11.161 billion of current fiscal year.

The federal budget also projected the trade deficit target at $926 million for the fiscal year 2003-04, against the current year revised trade deficit of $ 813 million.

The exports and imports would thus register a growth of 6 percent and 7.5 percent respectively when calculated at benchmark of $10.4 billion exports and $11.1 billion imports of the current fiscal year. Trade deficit during 2002-03 is estimated at $1 billion.

The officials projections of exports and imports were based on sustained increase in agriculture production, revival of the manufacturing sector, lower prices of oil and its products, diversification of export and industrial base for import substitution and improvement in the overall competitiveness of the external sector.

Agriculture sector is anticipated to grow by 4 percent, large scale manufacturing sector by 8.8 percent and small scale manufacturing sector of 7.8 per cent and other sectors by 4.7 per cent during financial year 2003-04.