The Commerce and Industry Ministry has sent a note to the Union Cabinet on the National Manufacturing Policy. It aims to take the share of manufacturing in the GDP from 16 per cent to 25 per cent by 2025, create 100 million jobs and envisages the establishment of integrated mega National Investment and Manufacturing Zones.

“Yesterday, I signed the Cabinet note. We hope that in a few weeks India will have a national manufacturing policy,” the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Anand Sharma, said on Friday at the CII Export Summit. He hopes that the Cabinet would take up the matter in two weeks.

He told reporters later that said the Government will announce a duty drawback scheme by next month-end to replace the Duty Entitlement Passbook (DEPB) scheme. The DEPB will expire on September 30.

The Commerce and Finance Ministries are working out a duty drawback scheme that will include even those sectors which are not covered presently, Mr Sharma said. The new scheme will be more attractive than the DEPB as it will offset the losses that the exporters incur due to the withdrawal of the DEPB, he added. He also said the Government is conscious of the industry's concern on high cost of credit.

Mr Sharma indicated that the Empowered Group of Ministers is likely to take up next week a proposal to lift the ban on wheat exports. The EGoM may also consider a proposal to permit shipments of additional quantity of non-basmati rice.

The Minister said India's negotiations on a bilateral trade pact with the European Union are in advance stages, adding that the Free Trade Agreements in the pipeline include those with Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

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