Foundry meet begins with tax cut demand

The Indian Institute of Foundrymen (IIF) has asked for a nine per cent DEPB rate instead of a three per cent rate.

B K Basak, president of the Indian Institute of Foundrymen (IIF), said the body would request the government to increase the rates to nine per cent in the face of competition from overseas manufacturers.

Basak said Indian foundries in the small scale sector were moving towards a cluster approach to survive and compete in the global market, but then move had to be accelerated.

He said the cluster approach would allow foundry units to access technology and skills that would not be available to them on a standalone basis.

"Cluster approach will enable them to access technologies which might not available to even medium sized foundry companies," he added.

"This will also provide the units barraging power in terms of procurement of raw material and striking marketing deals with foreign players," he said at the inauguration of the Indian Foundry Congress here.

Nirupam Sen, the West Bengal minister for commerce and industry, inaugurated the congress and said the state government was keen on seeing its new foundry park being commissioned by March 2006.

"The state is looking at the possibility of attracting foreign investment for the park but nothing definite has emerged," he added.

Sen said problems being faced by foundries with respect to availability of pig iron was likely to be sorted out soon with four units expected to commence commercial production totalling 50,000 tonnes per months soon.

Sen praised the industry for setting a new record with exports of Rs 1068 crore in 2003-04 for cast iron products and Rs 609 crore for sanitary castings.

S Dasgupta, chairman and managing director of M N Dastur and Co said in his key note address that the industry turnover could touch Rs 5,000 crore in five years from Rs 2,000 crore now if the policy framework was perfect.

He said Indian manufacturers should look for joint ventures with companies in the developed world where stringent pollution control norms, high input cost and high cost of manpower had become major problems.

Many units there were on the verge of closure, but these companies had excellent technologies which Indian manufacturers could access through tie-ups.