Institution Of Independent Tariff Panel Stuck

Last August, industry minister Murasoli Maran had told Business Stan-dard that the note had been sent to the ministries for comments,

following which it would be forwarded to the cabinet.

At the time, Maran had favoured moving the bill in Parliament. But since the comments have not yet come in, it is likely to be introduced in the budget session now.

The setting up of an independent tariff commission is part of the United Front governments stated policy. This means the proposal has political backing, even though the bureaucracy is, in general, opposed to the move.

The opposition stems from the fear of the tariff commission being taken over by the protectionist lobby. In such an eventuality, the government would lose its flexibility to structure the tariff rates.

 

The United Front governments common minimum programme envisages an

autonomous, advisory commission in line of the disinvestment commission, which is already in place.

The idea behind setting up such a commission is to impart greater transparency in determining tariffs.

Government officials fear creation of such a forum since it would be

difficult to overrule the commissions recommendations, even if it is statutory in structure.

By rule, a reply to a cabinet note is required to be returned within three weeks of its circulation. If key ministries such as finance and commerce fail to send in their replies, the concerned ministry gives additional time by sending in reminders.

Several reminders have been sent on the tariff commission note.

The industry ministry does not wish to commit the same mistakes like the proposal on raising ceiling on automatic clearances for foreign investments.

In the FI ceiling case, the ministry had taken the proposal to the cabinet on the assumption that if the concerned ministries did not respond within the granted time, it would assume it had no objection to the proposal.

Agriculture minister Chaturanan Mishra had objected that the proposal had been moved without comments from his ministry. The industry ministry is, thus, reluctant to move the proposal without comments from the concerned ministries.