Amidst economic slowdown and dip in exports, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced a slew of sops to give a boost to exports and housing sector. 

Annual mega shopping festivals in India will be organised over four themes - gem and jewellery, handicrafts/textiles, tourism and Yoga - in four places in March 2020, Sitharaman said.  

Government is working to reduce 'Time to export' by leveraging technology further, she said. 

Further, the government will release an action plan to reduce turnaround time at airports and ports benchmarked to international standards to be implemented by Dec 2019 and Inter-Ministerial group to monitor this. 

"We have action plan to improve turnaround time at our ports and bring it at par with top international ports," Sitharaman said at the press conference in New Delhi. 

Government has announced setting up of FTA Utilisation Mission headed by a senior officer in Dept of Commerce, to work with FIEO and export houses to utilise concessional tariffs in each FTA.

Sitharaman said there will be time-bound adoption by Industry of all necessary mandatory technical standards. Effective enforcement will elevate quality and performance, enhance competitiveness and address the issue of sub-standard imports.

Further, the government moves to enable the handicrafts industry to effectively harness e-commerce for exports. The Finance Minister announced mass enrolment of artisans across India for handicraft promotion.

"Export Credit Guarantee Corporation will expand scope of ECIS and offer higher insurance cover to banks lending working capital for exports in a move which will cost Rs 1700 crores per annum to the government," Sitharaman said.

She further said the government will extend the scheme of reimbursement of taxes and duties for export promotion. The Scheme for Remission of Duties or taxes on export product will replace MEiS. Both will continue till December, 2019. 

Starting January 1, 2020, MEiS will cease to exist. Fully automated electronic refund route for input tax credits (ITC) in GST. Fully electronic refund module for a quick and automated refund for ITC nearing completion and will be implemented by September end 2019.

In a relief to the small taxpayers, those with minor defaults will not be prosecuted. Defaulters of up to Rs 25 lakh will not be prosecuted.

In a serious bid to revive the housing sector, Sitharaman said the government will set up a fund and contribute Rs 10,000 crore in it to complete construction of unfinished projects in affordable  and middle income category housing. She informed that the government on the lines of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) will contribute in the proposed fund for the housing sector while the rest of the investors would include LIC and other institutions and private capital from banks, sovereign funds and development finance institutions. The Fund will be professionally run with experts from the housing and banking sector.

She said there will be relaxation of ECB guidelines for affordable housing. The housing building advance will be provided and a special window for affordable and middle income housing will be made available.

Projects that are 60% complete will get last mile funding through special window. ''We will not interfere with the projects that are under NCLT. The tribunal will decide what has to be done. About 3.5 lakh dwelling units will benefit from this,'' Sitharaman said.