'Pressure' from India Inc to raise duties: Industry secretary Bhatia

Says it wants to remain protected from foreign competition

While the government has been taking steps to reduce tariffs, there has been repeated ‘pressure’ from industry to increase duties to remain protected from foreign competition, industry department secretary Amardeep Singh Bhatia said on Wednesday.

 

“There are pressures that it (tariffs) should be increased by the domestic industry, which we need to look at. Why do these requests keep coming up? Why have we not been competitive enough,” Singh said at an industry event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

 

According to Singh, a lot of work has been done by the government in terms of reduction in tariffs. As a result, the weighted tariff has come down substantially and is almost at the world average level.

 

The secretary’s comments came against the backdrop of United States (US) President elect Donald Trump criticising India for being a high tariff nation and even calling India a ‘tariff king’.

 

Besides, India has been trying to ink free trade agreements with countries such as the United Kingdom (UK) and trade blocs like the European Union, with an immense pressure to reduce tariffs and increase market access.

 

Singh further said that significant progress has been made in the ease of doing business front over the last 10 years.

 

The Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP), a collaboration between the central and state governments, has led to the establishment of single window systems at both the state and national levels.

 

“…there’s a lot of improvement that can be done, because in our studies, we’ve found there’s a lot of variance across the states…

 

We know what needs to be done, but how it needs to be done is getting interpreted and implemented differently at the field level,” Singh said, seeking feedback from the industry on the matter.

 

He further said that more than 4,000 industrial parks are available in the country. As a result, it is important to optimally use and reclaim the unused land.