The Hindu Business Line : ‘Govt will protect industry from import surge’

New Delhi, Nov. 21 The Government may in the next few days come up with slew of administrative steps including the introduction of temporary licensing regime for import of select items as part of its efforts to protect the domestic industry from any surge in imports.

The steep fall in global commodity prices in the recent months and the financial crisis in the developed markets had increased the threat of cheap imports flooding the Indian market. This seems to have prompted the Government to look at administrative steps besides anti-dumping measures and customs duties.

“For protecting domestic industry, we will take anti-dumping and other administrative steps. We will ensure that you are protected from surge in imports,” Mr Pillai said at a FICCI interactive meeting on “global slowdown and strategies for sustaining India’s export growth”.

On the export front, Mr Pillai said that a package of incentives is being prepared by a committee of secretaries and this would be forwarded to the Prime Minister’s apex committee on economic crisis by the middle of next week.

Mr Pillai said that labour-intensive sectors such as textiles and gem and jewellery have been worst hit by the economic downturn in the developed markets. He told reporters that the Textile Ministry has estimated that about 5,00,000 jobs would be lost in the next five months if the current trend were to continue.

“We will provide a common set of incentives for labour-intensive sectors”, Mr Pillai said. As part of the incentives, the Government is also looking at the possibility of re-introduction of interest subvention for exporters.

“The committee of secretaries is looking at it (incentives) sectorally. We have already discussed proposals for textiles and gems and jewellery. In the next few days, we will take up leather, auto components and marine products”, he said.

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‘Govt will protect industry from import surge’