November 05, 2001
'42'INTER-MINISTERIAL GROUP TO LOOK INTO PESTICIDE AND CHEMICAL INDUSTRY’S PROBLEMS
The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers will be setting up an inter-ministerial group of officers to go into various issues concerning pesticide industry. This group under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Chemicals would consist of senior officers from the Ministries of Agriculture and Commerce besides Representatives from selected State Governments and Industry. It was also decided to set up a Working Group for developing state- of-the-art infrastructure for chemical industry under the Chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Chemicals). This group would comprise representatives from the Ministries of Industry, Commerce, Finance, Surface Transport, Environment as well as a few State governments and experts in the area of environment. A Third-group headed by the Economic Advisor of the Ministry would go into issues of cost of inputs including power, feedstock, etc. These decisions were taken at a meeting convened by the Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri S. S. Dhindsa with representatives of Chemicals, Petrochemicals and Pharmaceutical Industries, here today.
In his keynote address, Shri Dhindsa called upon the Chemical & Petrochemical industry to enhance competitiveness and contribute towards the overall development of the country. He also exhorted the industry to promote the concept of mega chemical industrial estates in the private sector. Enumerating the steps taken by the Ministry since liberalization of the economy, the Minister pointed out that the Government has de-licensed 19 of the 22 hazardous chemicals and allowed 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in the chemicals and petrochemical sectors. In the Pharmaceutical sector, the government has further liberalized its policy and has permitted 100% FDI through automatic route recently. The representatives of the industry stressed the need for switching over to the Value Added Tax (VAT) system to avoid cascading effect of taxes. They also demanded a level playing field, as according to them, the Indian industry was burdened by high cost of capital, energy, poor quality of infrastructure and higher feedstock cost. They also urged the Government to translate into action the initiatives taken at the higher level and called upon sensitization of the personnel of the customs and the other departments to the needs and constraints of the industry.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri Satyabrata Mookherjee stressed the need for upgrading the production technology and undertaking manufacture of value added products for meeting the domestic demands and the requirements of exports.
Today’s meeting was aimed at identifying policy initiatives for realizing the full potential of the Chemicals, Petrochemicals and Pharmaceuticals industry and discussing the various problems being faced by them.