New draft of National Chemicals Policy should be ready in one month: Indrajit Pal, Secretary, DCP

Speaking at a CII specialty chemicals seminar on 13 September in Mumbai, Indrajit Pal, Secretary, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals (DCP), Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers (MCF), emphasised on the importance of national chemical policy for sustaining the growth of Indian chemicals industry. He also disclosed that the government would release a new Draft National Chemicals Policy in about a month. On the sideline of the event, Rakesh Rao caught up with Pal to know more on the progress being made on the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs) and other initiatives.
 
Could you please give us the status of PCPIRs?
Already four PCPIRs have been approved. Of the four, we have already finalised the anchor tenants for three PCPIRs. While ONGC Petro Additions Ltd (OPaL) - joint venture by ONGC and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp - is the anchor tenant for Dahej (Gujarat) PCPIR, Indian Oil Corporation and Nagarjuna Oil Corporation (NOCL) are anchor tenants for Paradip (Odisha) and Cuddalore-Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu) respectively. For the fourth PCPIR in Visakhapatnam-Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), we are yet to finalise the anchor tenant. More likely, HPCL will be the anchor investor for the fourth since it is the only company that has applied for it.
 
The Dahej PCPIR is already in operation and has received huge investment. The second PCPIR to be operational soon will be Paradip, with IOC’s refinery likely to go on stream in next 6-7 months. IOC also has plans to put up another cracker in near future.
 
In all the four PCPIRs, there is no constraints of land for large and small units to set up and they offer tremendous opportunities for the industry to tap the potential. Sufficient land has been acquired in all the four approved PCPIRs, and hence there is no shortage for setting up of new units in these regions. Smaller players, users of downstream products of refineries and crackers, are most welcome to set up unit in PCPIRs. There is no prohibition at all on small units.

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When will the National Chemical Policy be ready?
We have had series of discussions with all the stakeholders for this. We expect the final draft of the National Chemical Policy to be ready in one month. After which it will be open to for public discussion. One of the highlights of this policy is its emphasis on sustainable development.
 
Some experts say that India should have REACH like regulation. Your comments
REACH is European legislation for its chemical industry. In India, there are divergent views on REACH. Since it requires lots of documentation, reporting, etc, small & medium scale manufacturers may not be able to meet its requirements.
 
How has been the progress on chemical inventory in India?
There are no formal inventory been made of chemicals in India. But DCP collects output data (in terms of tonnage and value) of the chemicals manufactured in the country regularly. The quantity of chemicals, in major sectors, being manufactured in India is known – it may not be 100% accurate, since we may not be able of capture data from very small scale manufacturers which are spread across the country.