Ficci in Swadeshi mould

ficci is polishing its swadeshi teeth in the run up to budget 2001-02. with union finance minister yashwant sinha already clarifying that the coming budget won't have sops for any particular sector, the chamber seems to have changed tack and is lobbying not just with north block but the swadeshi die-hards, both in the rss and the bjp. over the last two days, the ficci brass — secretary-general amit mitra and president r s lodha — have been in talks with rss joint general secretary madan das devi and bjp president jana krishnamurthy. the two closed-door meetings held in the ficci office assume significance because mr devi is the main link between bjp and rss and is credited with some clout in the right quarters. this is also the first time that a senior rss leader has met an industry body. in its meeting with the rss bigwig, the apex industry body has strongly indicated the need to retain the current import duty levels by highlighting several cost disabilities that desi companies face in areas such as power, transactions and borrowings, sources said. the inflexible labour policy and infrastructure bottlenecks only add to the problems. hence, the domestic industry was not adequately prepared for a low customs duty regime, ficci told the two leaders. when et asked dr amit mitra what the two meetings were all about, he said, it is part of our ongoing dialogue with society. it has got nothing to do with the budget preparations. all that we want is a decline in local costs. the import duty reduction should be calibrated. if this does not happen, indian industry would be dead.'' he, however, didn't tell whether ficci was seeking a cut or a status quo on the customs duty levels. the finance minister, in the last budget, had promised to bring down the peak tariff from 35 to 20 per cent over three years. experts say that import duties will have to come down. the more the process is delayed, the less will be the time given to the industry to adjust. cii, the other apex chamber, may also like to see the current import duties levels unchanged, but has seen the writing on the wall. the chamber has suggested a 5 per cent drop in peak tariff levels. the cii has said that a reduction in custom tariffs is inevitable. if customs duty is reduced in phases, it will cause less pain to industry.'' it has also said the process of duty rationalisation must correspond with domestic reforms in infrastructure, financial sector and labour. the rate structure should encourage greater value addition within the country. the net effect of duties must never result in negative effective rates of protection, cii has said.

Ficci in Swadeshi mould

FICCI is polishing its swadeshi teeth in the run up to Budget 2001-02. With Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha already clarifying that the coming budget won’t have sops for any particular sector, the chamber seems to have changed tack and is lo...

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