Comments
The Centre is expected to come out with the new National Chemicals Policy soon that is aimed at giving a boost to the chemicals sector and increase exports.
Indrajit Pal, Secretary to Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, said the draft policy had been prepared and there had been extensive discussions with all stakeholders. “The policy was delayed due to the elections. The (new) Government is now expected to bring it out shortly,” he told media persons on the sidelines of an industry meet on India Chem 2014 here on Thursday.
The policy focuses on sustainable growth of the sector, covering pesticides, organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals and dyes.
Pal said during 2012-13 India’s production of all chemicals grew to $140 billion from $110 billion two years ago (figures for 2013-14 are yet to be released). While exports were ₹1,78,000 crore, the sector saw imports worth ₹2,34,000 crore, he said, adding that this trade imbalance should be bridged.
The policy will also come out with India’s first national chemicals inventory. “Work on this has started. It will include data on production, consumption, import and exports,” he said.
Petrochem region Work on the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region along the Visakhapatnam-Kakinada corridor is progressing well. Being set up over 600 sq km, it will be the biggest of the four such projects currently underway in the country, the other three being in Dahej (Gujarat), Paradip (Odisha) and Tamil Nadu, according to Pal.
About 1,500 acres of land have been acquired for the PCPIR and tenders would be invited soon.
HPCL, which operates a 9 million tonnes refinery at Visakhapatnam, is expanding its capacity to 15 million tonnes and plans to set up a 15 mt greenfield refinery. It is in talks with GAIL to partner in the $10-billion refinery project and an MoU is expected to be signed between the two in the next six months.
JSV Prasad, AP Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, said the special incentive package promised to the State to compensate the loss of bifurcation was expected to be announced by the Centre in the next two months. This will also encourage investments in the PCPIR, he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.