Hit hard by the appreciating value of the rupee, exporters on Wednesday threatened to stop exports from May 1 and sought immediate remedial measures like pegging of the dollar exchange value at Rs 45.

"Thousands of small exporters have no option but to stop all exports as they are unable to enter into new contracts or even fulfil old commitments due to the extreme volatility in the forex market," S P Agarwal, President, Delhi Exporters Association, told reporters in New Delhi.

He said that with intense competition from China and other ASEAN countries, exporters have already started switching their businesses to other areas. He warned that with this trend India's share in the world market may decline.

Agarwal said that Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley had promised he would take up the matter with the finance ministry when a delegation of the association met him recently.

A team of the Delhi Exporters Association will also meet commerce secretary Dipak Chatterjee, finance secretary D C Gupta, economic adviser to the prime minister S Narayan, and RBI Governor Y V Reddy over this issue, he said.

Agarwal said that garment and textiles exporters had been preparing themselves for accelerated exports since the quota free regime was approaching next year, but their plans had gone awry.

The Delhi Exporters Association is seeking the restoration of Section 80 HHC in its full form (100 per cent income tax exemption like in the case of export-oriented units and special economic zones) and tax waiver on Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme.

The association has also sought exemption from service tax for exporters, availability of instant export credit at zero per cent across the table on production of confirmed export orders or letter of credit while reducing transaction cost by half.