Manufacturing policy to come up for clearance this week

Union minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma has said that India's first manufacturing policy would to be taken up for final clearance in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on June 9. This would be a step towards greater focus on improving manufacturing processes and facilities in the country.

Manufacturing accounts for 16-17 per cent of the GDP at present. "We have to take this to 25 per cent by 2025," Sharma said.

The new policy would bring in technology and encourage innovation in the manufacturing segment. The government has completed inter-ministerial discussions with the stakeholders to reach a consensus, he said.

He was in Chennai recently to address exporters at a meeting jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), Southern Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sicci) and Tirupur Exporters Association.

The minister acknowledged that exporters were facing issues in claiming duty reimbursement because of the delay in issuing BRCs by banks.

He would initiate talks with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Indian Banks Association and the top management of nationalised banks to implement electronic disbursement of bank realisation certificate (BRC) for exporters to speed up the duty reimbursement procedures, he told the exporters.

BRC, which documents the realisation rate at which the foreign currency is converted into Indian rupee, is mandatory for applying duty reimbursement schemes like Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme and duty draw back scheme.

Ramu S Deora, president, FIEO, said the expiry of interest subvention scheme which cushioned the cost of credit coupled with the increase of base rates by banks would be a threat for the growth of exports.

Since the expiry of the scheme, the cost of credit for exporters has increased from seven per cent to 11 percent, while the cost of credit is still around five per cent in many other competitor nations.