Commerce Min to seek Cabinet nod on manufacturing policy

The draft national manufacturing policy, aimed to reduce the compliance burden of the industry, will soon be placed before the Cabinet, the government said today.

"We hope that we will be able to come out with the formal policy soon...surely within the next few weeks or next couple of months. We are ready with that," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here.

Sharma said that he has discussed the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Mukherjee referred to the same initiative in his Budget speech.

"The government will come out with a manufacturing policy, which will bring down the compliance burden on the industry through self-regulation and help make Indian industry globally competitive," Mukherjee said.

The government aims to take the share of manufacturing sector, which contributes over 80% to the country's overall industrial production, in GDP from about 16% to 25% over a period of 10 years.

Under the upcoming policy, the government has proposed to set up integrated green-field mega-investment zones to attract global investment and latest technologies.

On the issue of imposition of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), Sharma said that this announcement came as a "surprise" and he will take up the matter with the Finance Minister.

"MAT has to be imposed once the Direct Taxes Code kicks in, that would be next year, but the announcement this year has caused surprise. I am going to take it up once again with the Finance Minister to aligned it with the implementation of the DTC. I will surely urge him to review it," Sharma added.