Need to see why industry seek high duties despite significant cut in tariffs: DPIIT Secy

India has reduced its tariffs significantly over the years, bringing them down to the world average level, yet the domestic industries continue to suggest increasing the duties, a senior government official said on Wednesday. Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Amardeep Singh Bhatia said that it needs to be examined why such requests come.

“On the export market side and integration with the (global) supply chains, there is also a lot of work which has been done in terms of reduction in tariff, the weighted tariff has come down substantially and it is almost at the world average level. But of course, there are pressures that it should be increased by the domestic industry, which we need to look at why these requests keep coming up. Why are we not competitive enough,” he said.

India has also free trade agreements with different countries to push exports.

The Secretary was speaking at CII’s Global Policy Forum 2024.

Cut in customs duties on raw materials help boost domestic manufacturing, create jobs and push exports.

Tariffs have been reduced in different sectors such as electronics, precious metals and chemicals. He added that the Viksit Bharat 2047 targets would lead to enhanced investments in the private sector such as clean energy. The government has taken a series of measures to promote ease of doing business in the country.

“A lot has been done in the industrial infrastructure space. There are more than 4,000 industrial parks in the country,” Bhatia said, adding some states are doing good in making available land for industrial purposes.

“We will have consultations and see what more can be done (at the land front),” he said.

Some states like Tamil Nadu have put in place “very good” practices like putting in place land pooling systems to bring more industrial land, the secretary said.

Speaking at the session, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises (India), said that the high cost of doing business in India bothers the industry and more needs to be done to promote ease of doing business at the states’ level as things on the ground do not move the way it should.

On this, Bhatia said that the Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP) is there to assess the work of states at the ease of doing business.

“There are about 280 reform actions identified and are part of the BRAP…We have a bucket of good practices which we share with all…Odisha and Telangana have good single-window systems. So things are happening.

Obviously there are gaps and much more can be done at the states’ level,” he added.