Page 48 - ELT_15th August 2020_Vol 373_Part 4

A124 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 373

gies, Sunil Vachani, said the move would further boost the make in India initia-
tive for TVs sets and go a long way for self-reliance. “India has the capability to
manufacture television sets across all sizes and this will spur those investments,”
said Vachani.
Panasonic India CEO Manish Sharma said this would help increase val-
ue addition for the television manufacturing industry. “This move will impact
some of the brands who were just importing products and selling. Television is a
category which does not have too complicated assembling and India can easily
scale it up,” he said.
[Source : The Economic Times, New Delhi, dated 31-7-2020]

Licences likely for furniture, toys & sports gear import —
Bid to encourage local production

Imports of furniture, toys and sports goods are likely to require licences
soon, a measure the Government hopes will reduce imports and encourage do-
mestic production, said people with knowledge of the matter. India has already
imposed licensing requirements for tyres and colour TV imports, a big percent-
age of which comes from China.
The Government may also raise import duties for certain products to
their bound rates to make imports costlier. Bound tariffs are the ceiling rates
specified at the WTO beyond which countries cannot raise duties.
The Government has decided to license these imports after finding that
higher duties have been ineffective in reducing the amount of goods coming into
India, even as they raise costs for domestic industry, officials said. The licence
requirements serve as non-tariff barriers that discourage imports. Cheap import-
ed goods have been finding their way into the country through the misuse of free
trade agreement route, officials said.
“Non-duty actions like import curbs are one of the main actions availa-
ble to the Government as many of these are coming at low duty and which can-
not be controlled through increased tariffs,” said an official.
The products for which import restrictions are being considered are part
of the 20 industrial sectors in which India has a manufacturing advantage and
can attract investments, as identified by the Government.
Consultations on with industry
These include standard and special furniture, air-conditioners, leather,
footwear, agro-chemicals, ready-to-eat food, steel, aluminium, copper, textiles,
electric vehicles, auto components, TV set-top boxes, CCTVs, sports goods, etha-
nol & bio-fuels, and toys.
This is not a unilateral exercise and consultations are on with industry on
ways to reduce imports, the official said. “So, industry will be able to rapidly
move to domestic manufacturing without consumers seeing any price escala-
tion,” the person added.
The Government had launched the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, or self-
reliant India programme, in May as part of a strategy to reduce dependence on
imports and revive the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
EXCISE LAW TIMES  15th August 2020  48